STOP saying "Diet"!!!

flippy1234 wrote: »

For the record...."Journey" does not mean diet. In the sense that I wrote it when I posted this, it means that I am working on my health, my weight, my lifestyle. It IS a JOURNEY as it does not happen over night.

Diet CAN mean the way you eat but I the "DIET" I meant is all the crap out there that tries to get you to eat this way, not that way, don't eat this, eat that, etc...

Come on people, you know what I mean. No need to be snide and sarcastic here. Go for a run or something and get your anger out.

flippy1234 wrote: »

For the record...."Journey" does not mean diet. In the sense that I wrote it when I posted this, it means that I am working on my health, my weight, my lifestyle. It IS a JOURNEY as it does not happen over night.

Diet CAN mean the way you eat but I the "DIET" I meant is all the crap out there that tries to get you to eat this way, not that way, don't eat this, eat that, etc...

Come on people, you know what I mean. No need to be snide and sarcastic here. Go for a run or something and get your anger out.

sympha01 wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

sympha01 wrote: »

diannethegeek wrote: »

Some people hate the word diet. Some people despise calling it a journey. I should add a funny meme here to punctuate my point, but I don't have the energy to find one.

This. Personally, I loathe the verbal gymnastics many people use to avoid using the "d" word. Especially saying you're on a "journey" rather than a "diet." Barf to that sanctimonious nonsense.

But also especially since 9 times out of 10, they're just doing it because some d-bag told them not to use the word "diet," and not because they actually understand or have actually accepted the meaning of the idea that long-term weight control will require lifestyle changes.

Weight control does not equal weight loss, just like "dieting" to lose lose weight does not equal changing one's eating habits to prevent weight gain. I contend that for most people who have a substantial amount of weight to lose, there is a short- to mid-term "diet" phase where you're eating at a meaningful and appropriate deficit to lose weight and build better habits, followed by a long-term / lifelong weight control phase with different eating habits than before the weight loss, but also different eating habits than during the weight loss phase. So yeah, you're almost certainly gonna need to diet first, whatever you want to call it. Then if you're successful you'll need some new habits / lifestyle tools to keep it off; otherwise just going back to pre-diet lifestyle will mean gaining the weight back.

Also, for what it's worth, I personally find it this hostile attitude towards the word "diet" to be strongly correlated with (tho' not limited to) judgemental jerks who are using it as part of a larger pattern of judging fat people. As in -- you wouldn't need to "diet" if you weren't fat, the reason you're fat isn't simply because you tend to overeat and need to eat less, it's because you have a "bad" lifestyle, i.e. you're lazy and gluttonous, etc. and you need to change who you are fundamentally. This is hardly the same thing as compassionately coaching people about specifically how to gradually establish healthier eating habits that will support long-term weight management after a weight loss period.

I talk about my weight loss journey because that's how I view it: as a journey. It's several years spent doing and learning lots of new things and making hundreds of little changes that, when added up, make a lifestyle change.

I don't believe I'd have gone this far if I hadn't made all those many changes.

There is nothing sanctimonious about it. I don't think it makes me better than someone else. I also know it doesn't make me worse...or sanctimonious.

You've made some very big assumptions about other people, some of which are dead wrong.

Just as you wouldn't stop saying the word "diet" because someone didn't like it, I will not stop saying "journey" because someone doesn't like it. These issues you have with the word are your issues, not mine.

Please don't take it personally when other people speak about a "weight loss journey." They didn't say it to upset you. There is NO offense intended.

There's a huge difference between choosing not to use the word "diet" for yourself for whatever reason (and replacing with other shorthand that's also likely to be misinterpreted by other people, not for nothin'), and ordering other people people not to use it. Huge. Difference.

Bottom line, I think most of the successful long-term weight losers tend very much to agree that weight maintenance is a long-term thing, not a short-term one. What we don't agree on is that there's a single one-word way to communicate this hard-earned wisdom to everyone else without going on at length about it. You say "diet" is problematic because you think everyone else hears that as cleanse or paleo. I say "journey" is problematic because -- according to the dictionary, not something I made up in my head -- when not applied to physical travel, it carries a significance of "personal development," i.e., becoming a better person, not just that it takes time. Which I'd argue opens the door to people thinking it's sanctimonious.

Maybe what long-term weight losers should try to agree on is that we really can't communicate what we've learned the hard way over a long period of time by just picking one word and ordering other people not to use it. Feel free to judge people for their word choice -- I'll continue thinking people who use the word "journey" are attaching an undue amount of spiritual weight to something, you continue thinking people who use the word "diet" don't care if other people think that means we've gone on a gluten-free non-dairy organic cleanse of our toxins.

sympha01 wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

sympha01 wrote: »

diannethegeek wrote: »

Some people hate the word diet. Some people despise calling it a journey. I should add a funny meme here to punctuate my point, but I don't have the energy to find one.

This. Personally, I loathe the verbal gymnastics many people use to avoid using the "d" word. Especially saying you're on a "journey" rather than a "diet." Barf to that sanctimonious nonsense.

But also especially since 9 times out of 10, they're just doing it because some d-bag told them not to use the word "diet," and not because they actually understand or have actually accepted the meaning of the idea that long-term weight control will require lifestyle changes.

Weight control does not equal weight loss, just like "dieting" to lose lose weight does not equal changing one's eating habits to prevent weight gain. I contend that for most people who have a substantial amount of weight to lose, there is a short- to mid-term "diet" phase where you're eating at a meaningful and appropriate deficit to lose weight and build better habits, followed by a long-term / lifelong weight control phase with different eating habits than before the weight loss, but also different eating habits than during the weight loss phase. So yeah, you're almost certainly gonna need to diet first, whatever you want to call it. Then if you're successful you'll need some new habits / lifestyle tools to keep it off; otherwise just going back to pre-diet lifestyle will mean gaining the weight back.

Also, for what it's worth, I personally find it this hostile attitude towards the word "diet" to be strongly correlated with (tho' not limited to) judgemental jerks who are using it as part of a larger pattern of judging fat people. As in -- you wouldn't need to "diet" if you weren't fat, the reason you're fat isn't simply because you tend to overeat and need to eat less, it's because you have a "bad" lifestyle, i.e. you're lazy and gluttonous, etc. and you need to change who you are fundamentally. This is hardly the same thing as compassionately coaching people about specifically how to gradually establish healthier eating habits that will support long-term weight management after a weight loss period.

I talk about my weight loss journey because that's how I view it: as a journey. It's several years spent doing and learning lots of new things and making hundreds of little changes that, when added up, make a lifestyle change.

I don't believe I'd have gone this far if I hadn't made all those many changes.

There is nothing sanctimonious about it. I don't think it makes me better than someone else. I also know it doesn't make me worse...or sanctimonious.

You've made some very big assumptions about other people, some of which are dead wrong.

Just as you wouldn't stop saying the word "diet" because someone didn't like it, I will not stop saying "journey" because someone doesn't like it. These issues you have with the word are your issues, not mine.

Please don't take it personally when other people speak about a "weight loss journey." They didn't say it to upset you. There is NO offense intended.

There's a huge difference between choosing not to use the word "diet" for yourself for whatever reason (and replacing with other shorthand that's also likely to be misinterpreted by other people, not for nothin'), and ordering other people people not to use it. Huge. Difference.

Bottom line, I think most of the successful long-term weight losers tend very much to agree that weight maintenance is a long-term thing, not a short-term one. What we don't agree on is that there's a single one-word way to communicate this hard-earned wisdom to everyone else without going on at length about it. You say "diet" is problematic because you think everyone else hears that as cleanse or paleo. I say "journey" is problematic because -- according to the dictionary, not something I made up in my head -- when not applied to physical travel, it carries a significance of "personal development," i.e., becoming a better person, not just that it takes time. Which I'd argue opens the door to people thinking it's sanctimonious.

Maybe what long-term weight losers should try to agree on is that we really can't communicate what we've learned the hard way over a long period of time by just picking one word and ordering other people not to use it. Feel free to judge people for their word choice -- I'll continue thinking people who use the word "journey" are attaching an undue amount of spiritual weight to something, you continue thinking people who use the word "diet" don't care if other people think that means we've gone on a gluten-free non-dairy organic cleanse of our toxins.

allenpriest wrote: »

Diet to me says deprivation and temporary.
I'm not "dieting". I'm changing how I eat.
I don't care what you call it for yo. But I've read it lot of posts from folks lamenting that they can't maintain their"diet". I'll keep telling them to stop dieting and make a permanent change in your lifestyle.

diannethegeek wrote: »

Some people hate the word diet. Some people despise calling it a journey. I should add a funny meme here to punctuate my point, but I don't have the energy to find one.