Don't be a sheep

It's that unescapable, unavoidable annual revolution. When the newspapers come with free diet plans (thanks, todays Times…), unknown 'celebrities' release workout DVD's, even my local radio station has it's own diet website, and the tv is almost unwatchable. Low-calorie, no-calorie, high-intensity, fat-burning, fat-blocking, carb-blocking, weight-watchers, slimming-world, ready-meals, calorie-counted, calorie-controlled…the list goes on and on and on.

I know it's unavoidable, but I'm not going to lie, it is hard for me to deal with all these diets and the media telling me that if I'm not trying to get fit, I'm a failure. My initial diet that led me to develop my ED started with a New Years resolution on January 1st, so hearing about my friends losing weight brings back bad memories. However, I've started to realise that I will never be able to remove this trigger from my life, and I must try and remember that by February 1st, it'll all be over for another year as people ditch the unsustainable 'healthy new lifestyle' and the media hype dies down.

One diet I have a serious problem with is the 5:2 diet, where the participant eats normally 5 days a week, then eats 500 calories for 2 days. A friend of mine is currently embarking on this plan, and said on Facebook that she "dreads life 2 days a week!" How sad. Life's far, far too short to 'dread life' and starve oneself, and nobody should wake up wishing time away simply because they won't eat that day. To me, this seems a thoroughly unsustainable way of  living and completely miserable; trust me, been there, done that. This morning, I flicked onto The Daily Mail website (I know, I know, I shouldn't…) and the main story is about 4 women who lost weight on this crazy plan. I completely understand that weight loss is a healthy necessity for some, and in that sense I have no problem with it, but I firmly believe it should be conducted in a sensible and sustainable fashion. One woman writes that she's now maintaining her weight and "only fasting for one day a week." Again, this strikes me as tragic; we shouldn't have to be fasting at all. What happened to everything in moderation?

Just because it is January, and the Daily Mail are telling everyone that they must look toned and spend a portion of their life hungry to be in control, doesn't mean we all have to do it.