What If You Never Dieted Again?

What If You Never Dieted Again?

How many diets have you been on in your life? Be honest. Was it the grapefruit diet, Atkins, Keto, Weight Watchers, intermittent fasting, cabbage soup (who thought that was a good idea, anyway)? If you’re like most people, you can rattle off at least a handful…maybe even a dozen.

And here’s the kicker: if diets worked long-term, you wouldn’t keep trying new ones. The diet industry is built on one thing. Repeat customers. If it solved the problem, they’d be out of business.

So let’s ask the big, scary, and liberating question: what if you never dieted again?

The Problem With Diet Culture

Diet culture has taught us a few lies along the way:
• Thinner automatically means healthier.
• Smaller automatically means more disciplined, more worthy, more attractive.
• If you just find the right diet, everything in your life will magically improve.

But here’s the truth: diets are often unsustainable, and most people gain back the weight they lose (and then some). Worse, diets steal your joy. They make food the enemy, meals stressful, and your worth tied to a number on a scale.

Imagine what else you could be thinking about if “what can I eat today?” wasn’t running through your brain 24/7.

The Radical Idea of “Never Dieting Again”

What would happen if you walked away from diets for good?

• You’d stop labeling foods as “good” or “bad.”
• You’d start paying attention to how food makes you feel instead of what it does to your waistline.
• You’d give your brain (and your heart) the space to focus on things that actually matter: family, hobbies, adventures, and health that goes beyond calories.

This doesn’t mean giving up on health. It means shifting your definition of health. Instead of “how small can I make myself?” the better questions are:
• How strong do I feel?
• Can I get up off the floor without help?
• Do I have the energy to play with my kids, grandkids, or my doodle?
• Am I fueling my body so I can focus, recover, and actually enjoy life?

What Healthy Looks Like Without Dieting

If you strip away diet culture, what’s left? A lifestyle built on habits that serve you long-term. Think:

• Movement you enjoy. Walking Zorinsky Lake with a friend, dancing in the kitchen, doing chair yoga while watching Netflix. Movement doesn’t need to be punishment; it can actually be fun. Honest!

• Eating with awareness. Instead of rigid rules, notice how foods make you feel. Maybe a greasy fast-food meal makes you sluggish, while grilled chicken and sweet potatoes give you steady energy. The goal isn’t restriction, it’s connection.

• Resting and recovering. Sleep is not a luxury. Your body repairs, rebuilds, and resets while you rest. You can’t out-diet exhaustion.

• Staying hydrated. Not with gallon jugs and trendy electrolyte packets. Just consistent, simple hydration that keeps you clear-headed and energized.

• Managing stress. Food won’t fix chronic stress, but moving your body, taking deep breaths, and even decluttering a corner of your home can help more than a diet ever will.

Why This Matters in Nebraska (Yes, Right Here)

In Nebraska, we’re not strangers to “big portions,” potlucks, or Friday night pizza. Listen, nobody’s saying you can’t enjoy Runzas, steak, or Valentino’s. A life without your favorite foods isn’t health, it’s misery.

But here’s the hard truth: our region is seeing alarming numbers that remind us why this matters. In Douglas County, about 61 % of adults are overweight or obese. In Omaha, the child obesity rate clocks in at around 31.7 %, with 15.3 % classified as obese. Statewide, roughly 36.6 % of Nebraskans report having a BMI of 30 or higher.

These aren’t just “numbers”, they’re your neighbors, your friends, your family. They’re people who want to feel strong, capable, and confident in their own bodies.

Here’s the point: we can love our comfort foods and still work toward health. We do not need to live in deprivation. What we do need is space. Sspace to heal our relationship with food, space to rebuild trust with our bodies, and space to move in whatever way feels good and sustainable.

So yes..to me, part of healthy living in Nebraska is honoring your favorites. Eating a piece of Bakers Chocolate isn’t a betrayal. It’s part of life. You can include joy and pursue function, movement, strength, and independence. The goal isn’t to be perfect. The goal is to live.

What OTs like me care about is function and independence. Can you age in place safely? Can you recover from injury with strength and confidence? Can you live your life fully without diets and shame dictating your every choice? That’s the version of health that matters.

How to Start Living Diet-Free

1. Stop moralizing food

A cookie isn’t a sin, and a salad doesn’t make you a saint. They’re both just food. One might fuel your body differently than the other, but neither one defines your character.

When we attach morality to food, we set ourselves up for guilt and shame that spiral into overeating, restriction, or the classic “well, I already messed up today, so I might as well…” mindset. That’s not discipline. That’s diet culture doing a number on your brain.

Think about it this way: if you eat a cupcake, the worst-case scenario is… you ate a cupcake. That’s it. It doesn’t cancel out every good choice you’ve ever made. It doesn’t suddenly erase your strength, your kindness, or your worth as a human being. It’s sugar, flour, butter, and frosting. Delicious, but not a moral compass.

Instead of asking, “Is this food good or bad?” flip the question: “How will this make me feel?”

• Sometimes the answer is, “This cupcake will make me happy because it’s my kid’s birthday, and sharing it is part of the celebration.” That’s a perfectly valid reason. Food connects us to people and memories. Enjoying it doesn’t make you “weak”, it makes you human.

• Other times the answer is, “I need steady energy to get through the afternoon, so I’ll grab an apple and peanut butter or maybe some cheese.” That’s not about being “good”,  it’s about being practical. You chose fuel because that’s what your body needed.

Here’s the magic: both decisions are valid. Both serve a purpose. Neither requires guilt or shame.

When you take morality out of food, you take back control. You stop labeling yourself as “bad” because you had dessert or “good” because you ate something green. You simply become someone making choices. Some for fuel, some for joy, all for living.

And honestly? Life’s too short to not have a cupcake now and then.

2. Notice your body’s signals

You were born knowing when you were hungry and when you were full. Babies don’t count macros before they cry for milk. They eat when they are hungry, they stop when they are satisfied, and they don’t stress about whether their bottle fits into a point system. Somewhere along the way, years of dieting, rules, and “shoulds” can drown out those natural cues. The good news is you can tune back in.

Start small. Ask yourself what hunger feels like for you. Maybe it is a growl in your stomach. Maybe it is that foggy feeling where you cannot think straight. Maybe it is irritability, better known as hanger, where you would pick a fight with the dog if he looked at you sideways. Hunger signals are not the same for everyone, and learning your own is step one.

Next, pay attention to fullness. Not the Thanksgiving-level stuffed feeling where you need stretchy pants, and not the hollow, starving feeling that makes you want to eat everything in the pantry. Fullness is that middle ground where you feel comfortable, satisfied, and ready to move on with your day without obsessing about food.

And here is the thing. It is not just about hunger or fullness. Your body sends signals in other ways too. Notice your energy and your mood. If lunch leaves you so sleepy you want to crawl under your desk, that fast-food meal probably was not the best fuel for you. If a balanced breakfast keeps you steady until noon without needing a second pot of coffee, that is valuable information.

You do not need a food log or an app to collect this kind of data, but if that works for you, use it. Your body already gives you the feedback. You just need to pay attention. Think of it like becoming fluent in a language you used to know but stopped practicing. The more you listen, the easier it gets.

3. Build small habits

Forget the giant overhauls. They never stick. You know the kind… you buy the expensive meal plan, stock the fridge with kale, vow to work out six days a week, and by Friday you’re staring at your Uber Eats app wondering how it all went wrong. Instead of going big, focus on one small, ridiculously easy habit at a time.

• Add a glass of water before your morning coffee. You don’t have to guzzle a gallon like you’re irrigating a cornfield. Just drink a glass before that first glorious cup of caffeine. Your body will thank you.

• Take the stairs once a day, even if the elevator is closer. This isn’t about training for Mount Everest. It’s about reminding your legs they were built for more than sitting behind a desk all day.

• Cut up veggies when you get home from the store so they’re just as easy to grab as chips. If you’ve ever found a sad bag of baby carrots fossilized in the back of your fridge, you know why this matters. Make them visible, make them ready, and you’re more likely to eat them.

• Keep a pair of sneakers in your car so you’re always ready for a quick walk. Whether you’re parked at the ball fields waiting for practice to end, or you’ve got a 10-minute break before a meeting, you can sneak in some movement without overthinking it.

These little habits might seem almost laughably small, but they add up. Unlike diets, they don’t require you to flip your whole life upside down or swear off  pizza forever. The best part? They fit into a busy lifestyle. Practical, no-nonsense, and built to last.

4. Focus on function

This is my favorite part. Forget chasing a number on the scale. Who cares what it says if you can’t bend over to tie your shoes without holding your breath? The real question is: what can your body do?

• Can you squat down to pick something up and get back up without grabbing the nearest piece of furniture like it’s a life raft?
• Can you carry groceries inside without needing a recovery nap on the couch? Bonus points if you insist on making it all in one trip like a superhero.
• Can you walk a block, or even a lap around the neighborhood, without huffing and puffing like you just finished a marathon?

Those are the wins that matter. Being able to move, lift, bend, carry, and breathe without struggling is worth far more than whatever number flashes back at you on the bathroom scale.

Here’s the truth: function equals independence, and independence is priceless. That holds true at every age. If you’re 25, it might look like being able to chase your kids around the park. If you’re 55, maybe it’s tackling yardwork or climbing stairs without feeling wrecked. If you’re 85, it might be as simple and powerful as getting out of a chair without help.

Nobody ever lies awake at night wishing they weighed ten pounds less when what they really want is to move through life comfortably. Nobody celebrates being able to zip into a smaller size if they’re still struggling to carry their laundry basket upstairs. The confidence you get from being strong and capable is way more lasting than anything the scale could ever give you.

That’s the kind of strength that matters.

5. Ditch the shame

Health isn’t about punishing yourself into submission. It is about building a life you can actually enjoy. Shame will keep you stuck in the same old cycle. Joy is what pulls you forward.

When you eat something you had planned to avoid, the world does not end. One cookie does not erase a week of balanced meals. One slice of pizza does not cancel out every workout you have ever done. You can learn from it if you want to, but then move on. No guilt spiral required.

The same goes for workouts. If you skip a day, it does not mean you owe your body a two-hour punishment session the next day. It means life happened. Pick up where you left off. That is it.

And please realize this too: what you see from your favorite influencers online is not always the truth. Social media is a highlight reel. People post the best angles, the most flattering lighting, the workouts where they look strong and energized, not the ones where they are sweaty, tired, or struggling. Comparing yourself to that curated version of reality is like comparing your whole messy, beautiful life to someone else’s staged snapshot. Don’t do it. Your journey is your own, and it deserves to be celebrated on its own terms.

The healthiest people you know are not perfect. They do not hit every workout, track every meal, or avoid every craving. What they do is show up more often than not. They give themselves grace when life gets messy, and then they keep moving forward.

Perfection is not the goal. Consistency is. The people who win in the long run are the ones who keep lacing up their shoes, keep choosing the water, keep trying again the next day. They do not let shame or comparison call the shots, because shame and comparison do not build health. Grace, consistency, and joy do.

And honestly, joy is a much better motivator than guilt.

The Takeaway

I’ll be honest with you. I grew up smack in the middle of the diet culture boom of the 80s and 90s. SnackWells cookies, WOW Chips, SlimFast shakes, “fat-free” everything. If you lived it, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I still catch myself fighting that old programming and the negative self-talk that comes with it. Some days I still hear that little voice saying “smaller is better,” even though I know better now. For some of us, that will always be part of the battle.

But let’s be real. I will always have a soft spot for a slice of Hy-Vee bakery cake with that super sweet buttercream frosting that could probably power a small city, or a scoop of Thrifty’s Chocolate Malted Crunch. If that disqualifies me from “health guru” status, then I’ll happily hand in my badge.

But here’s the thing: the fight doesn’t define you. The way you keep showing up does. Life is a journey. Health is a journey. Weight loss, if it’s part of your story, is a journey too. There’s no magic finish line where it all becomes easy and you never think about it again. …and that’s okay.

So let’s ask the big question: What if you never dieted again? You’d free up time, energy, and self-worth for things that actually matter. You’d stop the exhausting cycle of restriction and guilt. You’d start living.

Health is not a size. Wellness is not a diet. Independence, strength, and confidence come from consistent habits and self-respect, not from a calorie counting app or the latest trend on TikTok.

When a shiny new diet pops up on your feed promising miracles, ask yourself: What if I didn’t? What if I chose to live differently this time?

I know my take on weight loss might sound a little controversial, but I stand by it. Movement, mobility, and function are the real keys. When you can move well, you can live well. Independence comes from being able to do things on your own. Carry groceries, get down on the floor and back up, play with your kids or grandkids, or just get through the day without feeling broken down. That’s what matters. And when you focus on those things, the weight loss very often follows.

So my challenge for you is simple: choose the decisions that bring you joy. Joy in moving your body. Joy in fueling it with foods that make you feel good. Joy in resting without guilt. Joy in celebrating small wins that have nothing to do with the number on a scale.

At the end of the day, you do you. Your journey is your own. It won’t look like mine, and it certainly won’t look like an influencer’s highlight reel. It will be messy, imperfect, and full of ups and downs, and that’s exactly how it should be.

Your life isn’t about punishing yourself into a smaller version of you. It’s about creating a bigger, fuller life in the body you have…while building the strength, function, and freedom to keep living it.

 At DRM Wellness, we believe in wellness that lasts, not quick fixes. We help people of all ages and sizes develop skills, restore function, and maintain independence. No fad diets required. Call us at (402) 940-8181, email us at [email protected], or visit www.DRMwellness.org to see how we can support your journey.