Just Because You Can’t Imagine Being Rid of Diet Culture Doesn’t Mean It’s Impossible

This has been the year of “imagining the unimaginable”. So much that we thought we could never live without (or with), we now are. Many parts of this new existence are really challenging, but I think most of us have experienced that ‘silver lining’ of quarantine- things we previously couldn’t have imagined, that we hope to incorporate into our “new normal”; things about the ‘before corona’ existence that we hope to leave behind for good. All of this reinforces the quote I stumbled upon by Evelyn Tribole: “Just because you can’t imagine it, doesn’t mean it’s impossible.” What if, this year, we could broaden our imaginations to make room for some novel ideas that, though not forced upon us, we can perhaps choose to accept as a new reality in the midst of all this other change? What if this year , we didn’t worry about (& talk about) every bite of cheese cake we eat on shavuos, & enjoyed every bite, and spoke about more worthwhile things instead? What if this year, we didn’t lament our (lack of the ‘perfect’) ‘summer bodies’ but instead recognized that all of us are going to make it into the history books, not because we managed to have the perfect fitness routine but because we lived during a global pandemic & all of the upheaval that comes with that, & we did really well considering! What if this year, we focus less on the size of our bodies, & more on all the things they’ve enabled us to do during this time. What if we focus less on labeling food as good & bad, and more on recognizing the purpose that each food serves & enjoying it in that way (and maybe while we’re at it we can try to do the same for the people around us). What if when the Coronavirus passes, we don’t accept as a given that we need to be thin, or even that we all can be thin, & we focus on health behaviors we actually can change instead?