I hope you guys are having a great holiday season! I posted an article below that I thought might interest you during this time of year. As always, please post your comments. Thanks for reading!
Best,
Jenni
Will Diets Work in 2009?
by Jenni Schaefer
In the years past, the month of December was always a time for Ed and I to think about my New Year’s resolutions. I was married to Ed for over twenty years, and during that time, he controlled almost every aspect of my life. On the top of the list of things to accomplish during each new year, above all else, Ed wanted me to control my food and weight once again. Every year it was exactly the same.
I have learned that I am not alone. Year after year, millions of Americans make the same resolutions that revolve around food and weight. Some people vow to lose that last five or ten pounds, while others promise to stick to the newest diet released in some book or on a catchy television infomercial. But we have all heard time and time again that diets do not work. In fact, 95 to 98 percent of diets fail, and most people who diet end up gaining even more weight back with each successive diet. I guess that is why we have to keep making the same old resolutions about losing weight over and over again.
So maybe we all know that diets fail, and we keep dieting anyway. But would we keep dieting if we had even more information? Would we keep dieting if we all knew another fact? The constant concern about calories and fat grams characterized by dieting all too often takes a deadly turn --- leading to eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia. And anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness. Would we keep dieting if we knew this information? Would we keep making a resolution year after year that might kill us?
I won’t do it. Not anymore. Not after struggling with anorexia and bulimia for over twenty years. It is not a coincidence that I was also married to my controlling husband, Ed, for over twenty years. Because Ed is my eating disorder. His name, Ed, is actually an acronym for eating disorder. Psychotherapist, Thom Rutledge, taught me to think of my eating disorder as a relationship --- rather than an illness or condition. Living with an eating disorder is very similar to being in an abusive marriage. Although my eating disorder, Ed, was controlling and manipulative, I protected him. I hid him from everyone. Because he told me that if I left him, I would be nothing special, worthless, and even worse.
Throughout my recovery from anorexia/bulimia, I learned to separate myself from Ed. I discovered that Ed was the one who wanted me to promise year after year to put even stricter limits on my food intake and body size. And I learned that Jenni wanted to be healthy and free from the diet mentality engrained in our culture. After many years of hard work and lots of patience, I have found an amazing life without Ed.
But Ed still lurks in the minds of Americans. In fact, people who have struggled with dieting often tell me that they wish they could have a “touch of anorexia.” These people admire the weight loss that they see with anorexia. They also desire just a little bit of the control around food that they imagine people who suffer with anorexia must experience. What people do not understand is that one cannot obtain just a “touch” of an eating disorder. With Ed, it is all or nothing. Ed does not let someone into his world “just a little.” Ed consumes all and only wants more and more – even when there is nothing left to give. And Ed is extremely painful. I tell people to trust me. No one wants even just a taste of anorexia or any eating disorder. An eating disorder is a serious disease that can lead to serious medial complications – even resulting in death.
So will we make resolutions again this year about dieting --- when we absolutely know diets do not work? Will we make these resolutions again even now as we are getting more educated about how dieting can lead to eating disorders?
Or do we think diets will magically start working in 2009?
When I sit down to write my New Year’s resolutions, I will not include dieting on my list. Not this year. Never again. When I decided to take the steps necessary to recover from my eating disorder, I chose life. Dieting is not living. I want to live in 2009.
I hope you do, too.
Jenni Schaefer is a singer/songwriter, speaker, and the author of Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too (McGraw-Hill). She is a consultant with the Center for Change in Orem, UT. For more information, visit www.jennischaefer.com or email jenni@jennischaefer.com.
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