Unhealthy Thoughts about Food and Body Image

     I submitted a guest post on losing weight healthfully at College Candy today, and it got me thinking about the mindset that encourages a person to diet. If someone thinks that life will be better when he or she has lost weight, that signals an unhealthy attitude about food and body image. But when you're the one having the thoughts, sometimes it's hard to perceive when they've become unhealthy. 

     I've discussed the thin line separating dieting from an eating disorder before. The process doesn't occur overnight. For me, it happened step by step. Negative thoughts about my appearance led to dieting. Dieting led to constant restricting. Constant restricting led to perceptions of "good" and "bad" foods. 

     By the time I realized my diet was controlling my life, the thoughts that influenced me were so instilled in my mind and accepted as fact, I couldn't recognize how illogical they really were. I didn't realize how irrational they were until actually spoken aloud to someone else. Have you ever found yourself thinking any of the following statements?

     Everyone is this room is looking at me thinking that I'm fat.

     He would like me better if I lost weight.

     They're thinking that I shouldn't be eating this.

     He's looking at my (face, stomach, whatever body part) because he thinks it's fat. 

     No one else cares about what they eat as much as me.

     I don't want to go do something fun because I feel fat.

     If I lose weight, some part of my personality will change as well.

     If you've believed any of these ideas to be true, take a moment and imagine your best friend saying them to you. What is the likelihood of these thoughts being plausible? Is it really possible that everyone in the room is thinking that? Is it really true that no one else cares about food? Is your social life suffering because you don't want to be seen? 

     If your mindset mirrors this list, dieting won't make you feel better. Dieting is your effort to better yourself, and if the perceived excess weight is gone, poor self-esteem will still be there. Learn to love yourself, and it will be a natural progression to treat your body well.

From Dieting to a Disorder

     Who am I to claim I can give you advice about preventing an eating disorder? Well, I had one. And it was a slow, slippery process.  Each false belief that I accepted as fact contributed to the demise of my self-esteem, and each unhealthy decision I made gradually contributed to my disease. Eventually, I was suffering from a full-blown eating disorder. I fit the clinical definition of bulimia.

     But before that, I was a “disordered eater.” 15% of young women are. It can mean everything from skipping meals and constant dieting to binge/purging, but these women are all at risk for developing a full-blown eating disorder. I was one of the ones who crossed that bridge.
     There are points where nutritious eating becomes restrictive, and exercise becomes excessive. There is a line between being body-conscious and body dysmorphia (or losing all sense of reality.) Dieting can turn to disordered eating, and disordered eating can turn into a clinical disorder.

     In our minds, thoughts we might have might seem normal. Maybe we think someone is skinnier than us who really isn't. Maybe we think people are staring at us, wondering if we should be eating that fattening food. Whatever the self-deprecating thought, it seems much more plausible in our mind than it does when written down or discussed with others. 

     Staying in shape while going to to school will be difficult. But it does not warrant obsession. (Nothing does.) It will require compromises, planning ahead, hard work and dedication. But you will also make mistakes. That's unavoidable. Demanding perfection is setting yourself up to fall short. 

     I hope you will share your stories with me. I hope you will open up about fears you may have. You will likely learn there are many others who feel the same.