International No Diet Day

Today is International No Diet Day. Not like the Great American Smoke Out, where you give it up for a day. Not a day to sneak some ice cream and a soda and maybe even a piece of fudge. A day to consider exactly what dieting has done for you. Are you happier? Are you at peace with your body? Do you enjoy your food? Or, do you start the day with a weigh-in, to see exactly what your value is today? Do you skip breakfast in the hope of getting thin? Do you restrict your food? Classify food as good or bad? Obsess about food that you won't allow yourself to eat? Have a rice cracker instead of a cookie? Do you even have a full length mirror in your house? Want to die if you come around the corner and see yourself in a shop window? Avoid swimming and reunions until you've lost a little weight? Hide when the camera comes out? Feel guilty if you eat a piece of your own birthday cake? Are the only numbers you know calorie or carb counts or points values?

Well, how would it be if you threw away your scale and spent some time standing in front of a full length mirror getting to know what you actually look like? Ate exactly what you wanted, when you wanted? Tucked your shirt in? Got all of the clothes that do not fit out of your closet? Bought some pretty new ones?

What if you never went on another diet? Spent some time looking at how bodies are different and how that variety is beautiful? What if, when people in the lunch room started talking about their weight and their diets and how fat they are, you either changed the subject or left? What if you stopped hanging around with people who focus on fat? What if you even just paid attention to how often people talk about weight and diets and food? How many commercials about it there are? How many magazine covers mention a diet article? How many celebrities are hounded about their weight?

What if you went to the grocery store and bought food you love instead of food you should? What if you discovered that you used to like cottage cheese, before all those diets made it horrible for you? Can you look the bag boy in the eye when he puts the doughnuts in the bag? Why not?

If you can't consider giving up dieting for life, perhaps you can for one day. One day to find peace with your body and your food. And, actually, it is like the Great American Smoke Out, because each ask you to give up your unhealthy addiction for a day. And believe me, dieting is an addiction.