Everyday Systems: nosdiet: message 3027 of 3212

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Hi, Hill,

I joined because the people didn't seem insane. I think it's in part
because this is a long-term diet. The problem with short-term diets is
that they're cyclical punish-reward systems: most people plan on being
"good" until they hit their unrealistic *starvation* goal, during
which time they berate themselves with guilt and feelings of
unworthiness and view their so-called heathy food as an evil enemy
they must conquer, and after meeting their goal, they "reward"
themselves with crazy binging on unhealthy amounts of sweets and
fattening food--meanwhile, their eating habits made them too faint and
weak to exercise, and wreaked havoc on their metabolisms, so their
reward food would make them even fatter, coupled with the lost muscle
from the fasting. A lot of so-called support groups for short-term
diets involve commiserating about the enemy, food, and banding
together in shared misery. The worst of these support groups involve
viscious competition on who can deprive themselves more, disguised as
encouraging role-modeling.

In terms of No-S specifically, no one expects anyone else to eat like
they do, so they don't end up watching each other like hawks and
having guilty confession parties. Reinhard is a very good role-model
in this respect because he doesn't apologize for eating the foods he
does, and he's not interested in being a taskmaster for anyone else. I
hate having people trying to control what I eat in that creepy
self-righteous, defensive way a lot of dieters have. I'll add that
I've never been on a fad diet because of the culture of negation and
punishment--and that's probably part of why I never got obese, besides
my relative youth. Right now I'm concentrating more on body
composition than body weight--oh yeah, I also hate how most diets
fetishize weight and looks instead of well-being. I think most
short-term diets compel people to want to lie and cheat (hence the
need, I suppose, for guilt to prod people into being "honest") 
because
they're beholden to the diet itself, whereas there's no one standing
over you on no-s.

mayo