Your strict diet can hurt you not only physically but socially and personally too!

An article in Times of India on How too much self-control can hurt relationships (Jason Luoma, 2018) made me think if it’s applicable to very restrictive diets too. With the current trend of extreme diets to lose weight are we focusing too much on the outer appearance and forgetting the basic need of inner fulfillment, peace and nourishment which is the main purpose of feeding ourselves?

The article mentions and I quote ‘Behaviors characterizing over-control tend to interfere with the formation of close social bonds and, as a result, people who are over controlled typically suffer from strong feelings of loneliness. They may often spend a great deal of time around others, but walk away feeling disconnected, unappreciated, lonely and exhausted’.

Now try to remember the last time you were following a very strict diet with only proteins or a high fat diet. Were you planning the next meal all the time? Were you stressed about sourcing the right foods when you attended a social gathering or visited someone’s place? Were you obsessively checking your weight every day of even your vacation? Were you just obsessed with the size of the next dress that you’ll buy? Did you stop eating with family at meal times just to keep up with your diet?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then let’s take a step back and look deeper within at how it was affecting you socially, emotionally and personally without you evening noticing it cause you were just stuck on that illusive number on the scale. The constant stress of sourcing the right foods for your diet regimen was taking all the pleasure out of the social gatherings and family outings. You could see people around enjoying and celebrating but you couldn’t connect. You stopped eating meals with family as it meant fighting temptations. It left you eating alone which can be daunting. Food no longer meant peaceful meal times with friends and family but it became just a science of losing weight. You did feel good about the number on scale or the size of the dress but you stopped noticing the happiness you were missing out on.

Having self-control has always been appreciated in our culture. Our ancient scriptures talk about fasting and avoiding of tamsik foods to achieve good health. In fact given the times we live in with all the junk food around following a sane, healthy diet itself requires self-control. So am I contradicting myself? No, here the key work is ‘control’ and we do not want to cross the thin line between control and ‘over control’! A good, healthy diet should fit your lifestyle like an old shoe. It should be tailor made to your schedules, eating habits and most importantly close to your culture. A diet which is not alien to you would not alienate you.

After all food is not just a means to fill our bellies but a celebration in itself. It is a beautiful thread that can bring families and friends together. Food can be an expression of love when you cook it for your loved ones, it can be an expression of joy when you make that fancy dessert for your child, it can be an expression of peace when you just sit together at the end of the day and have a lovely meal with your family. So control your food but do not let it control you!!

References

Jason Luoma, P. (2018, November 28). Psych Central. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com: https://psychcentral.com/blog/why-too-much-self-control-can-be-a-bad-thing/

#strictdiet #ketodiet #effectsofdietonsocialhealth