Ever been targeted by a sponsored post on social media that made you question the motivations behind it and how it influences your beliefs and behaviors?
I recently had that experience, and it led to a fascinating discussion about the manipulative tactics used by diet culture and the impact they have on our well-being. In this eye-opening episode, we explore the relationship between our exposure to certain messages and the beliefs we develop from a young age, especially when it comes to diet and weight loss.
We also dive into the red flags to look out for in wellness content and how our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can become intertwined when it comes to overeating. You'll discover that it's not about willpower or discipline, but rather a thought process of guilt and shame that can drive us to certain behaviors.
Gain insights on what to watch for when exposed to different accounts, social media, and ads that can lead to negative beliefs and internalize our own well-being.
Finally, learn what happens when we start to engage in behaviors and beliefs that make us feel empowered, and how our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions can become intertwined and impact our behavior in powerful ways. Uncover the dangers of falling into diet culture's marketing tactics and the importance of being mindful of the people and platforms that we expose ourselves to on a daily basis. By the end of this episode, you'll be better equipped to protect yourself from the shame and guilt perpetuated by diet culture, and take control of your own well-being.
So, tune in and join the conversation!
0:00 -Beware of Influences on Social Media
5:35-The Manipulative Tactics of Diet Culture
17:28- Red Flags in Wellness Content
23:23 -Empowering Beliefs and Behaviors
Find he Transcript Here.
RESOURCES
Connect with Sabrina:
Ever been targeted by a sponsored post on social media that made you question the motivations behind it and how it influences your beliefs and behaviors?
I recently had that experience, and it led to a fascinating discussion about the manipulative tactics used by diet culture and the impact they have on our well-being. In this eye-opening episode, we explore the relationship between our exposure to certain messages and the beliefs we develop from a young age, especially when it comes to diet and weight loss.
We also dive into the red flags to look out for in wellness content and how our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can become intertwined when it comes to overeating. You'll discover that it's not about willpower or discipline, but rather a thought process of guilt and shame that can drive us to certain behaviors.
Gain insights on what to watch for when exposed to different accounts, social media, and ads that can lead to negative beliefs and internalize our own well-being.
Finally, learn what happens when we start to engage in behaviors and beliefs that make us feel empowered, and how our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions can become intertwined and impact our behavior in powerful ways. Uncover the dangers of falling into diet culture's marketing tactics and the importance of being mindful of the people and platforms that we expose ourselves to on a daily basis. By the end of this episode, you'll be better equipped to protect yourself from the shame and guilt perpetuated by diet culture, and take control of your own well-being.
So, tune in and join the conversation!
0:00 -Beware of Influences on Social Media
5:35-The Manipulative Tactics of Diet Culture
17:28- Red Flags in Wellness Content
23:23 -Empowering Beliefs and Behaviors
Find he Transcript Here.
RESOURCES
Connect with Sabrina:
Be aware of the people that you follow, be aware of the things that you sign up for and the things you expose yourself to on a daily basis. I am bringing to you this episode after having experienced something this morning that really made me angry Well, angry's not the word, it made me disappointed. So I was telling my boyfriend how, because of the work that I do, i like to try to stay exposed to what the women in my community tend to see on a daily basis. So, because I've been doing this line of work intuitive eating, self-love, self-care, positive psychology for years now, my Instagram feed, my social media and the kind of conversations, the kind of peers that I have, all revolve around these more positive, empowering topics, and so, of course, when I'm on site, in my social media, i'm not seeing the same kind of messages. I'm not getting targeted with the same things that the women in my community are being targeted with anymore. Of course, when I was deep in my eating disorder and I was saving what you can eat videos and before and after pictures and workout videos that was what I was exposed to every day, and so, of course, what you see on a daily basis reinforces your current beliefs and your current way of thinking.
Speaker 1:That's why so many people get stuck in these habit loops and in these same patterns is because we develop these beliefs, whether we develop them from social media or societal messages at a very young age from friends, from family, about your thin ideal, about what your body is supposed to look like, about what health really means. We develop those beliefs And then, as we get older, we start engaging with behaviors that go hand in hand with those beliefs dieting, restricting, fasting And as we start engaging with those behaviors, we reinforce those beliefs by what we're being shown right. So if you are a avid weight watchers girl, then you're being targeted by weight watchers who's trying to get you back on their subscription plan. If you're a intermittent fasting girl, then you're probably part of intermittent fasting groups who all reinforce and encourage your behaviors that are not necessarily in your best interest. But we don't know that because we don't see the other side. We don't see another way of thinking, and so, as I was saying at the beginning of the episode, i wanna always stay up to date with what the women in my community are being targeted with, and so that means, unfortunately, that sometimes I have to try to seek those diet accounts or those weight loss accounts to see what kind of information is being spread, what kind of misinformation is being targeted at the women who, i know, just wanna have a healthy and normal relationship with food, they wanna feel better about themselves, they wanna improve their health, but they're being targeted with all the wrong information, all the information that just reinforces disordered habits around food and exercise.
Speaker 1:So this morning, i don't know how this popped up on my social media, but a intermittent fasting post popped up and I think it was a sponsored post And it was like is intermittent fasting for you And how to improve your health through intermittent fasting? And so I was like this is interesting, let me click on it and see what kind of quiz, what kind of information they provide to me on this topic. So they take you through this quiz. It's like a I don't know, like a five minute long quiz where they ask you about your habits and your goals and they really make it seem like they care about you. They wanna know what your goals are emotionally. Do you wanna feel at peace? Do you wanna feel happy? Do you wanna feel confident? They ask you about your habits. Are you a morning person, a night person. I mean, they ask you all of these questions and they make this questionnaire long because they really wanna make you feel like they care about you And like it's a very personalized approach.
Speaker 1:So I'm going through this and, as someone who has become very mindful and aware of marketing tactics, especially by diet culture, i could see it written all over the questionnaire. But as I'm going through it, i'm thinking the women in my community, the women who have been targeted by weight loss and diet ads and social media accounts for years and years. Now We're not maybe always able to to see this, because these companies, whether it's Weight Watchers or NUM or Optavia or this Intermin Fasting I honestly don't remember what the name was Um, this Intermin Intermin Fasting app, they, they have picked up on the fact that people are weary, people are weird of misinformation, of um, like shark marketing, of lies, of misconceptions, and so they become really smart in their marketing. They have some of the best experts out there who are there to make you feel cared for, to make you feel like they have your best interest in mind, and so I'm going through this quiz and then, of course, at the end, um, they don't. They don't give you your results right away. They ask you to put in your email address, your name and your email address So I do this and then it pops up in my in my inbox And I'm actually looking at my computer right now because I want to see exactly how they worded this. Um, let me pull it up. I know this is super not professional. Okay, so whatever, hi there, thanks for telling me about yourself. We're so excited.
Speaker 1:You took the first step in taking charge of your health with, and then the name of the company, which I'm not going to talk about. Based on your response, on your responses, we've tailored a personal program specifically, specifically for a female of your age. This will guarantee maximum results. And then you click on a link and they send you to your personal program. And so this the actual email didn't really bother me because it's kind of standard. What bothered me was when you scroll down to the bottom of the email.
Speaker 1:By law, each provider, each online marketer, anyone needs to have an unsubscribe button at the bottom of your page. And this unsubscribe button, instead of saying unsubscribe or email preferences, that you could click on the link and then decide they decide to put as the thing that you can click It says I don't want to start my wellness journey. I don't want to start my wellness journey And when I read that, my initial thought was how fricking manipulative is that? How manipulative is it? And this might seem like a small detail, but I want you to start looking out for all of these companies that really make you feel like they're on your side, right, like they're on your side. They really want to make you better. And then, when you just start diving a little bit deeper, these companies are all rooted in the same kind of ethics, which is making you feel bad about yourself, making you feel flawed, making you feel unmotivated or undisciplined or uncommitted to your quote unquote wellness journey. And their their main premise there is using, using shame so that you invest in their products, in their companies, in their apps, and the goal is to get you in and keep you in by making you think that you're the problem.
Speaker 1:Think of every weight loss diet or program or thing that you've done And perhaps you've gone results on. And when you stop because it's unsustainable, you can't keep tracking, you can't keep paying the ridiculous meal plan fees You it just was not realistic for you to keep doing for the rest of your life because life got in the way and you quote unquote fell off the wagon. If you look back on all of those attempts, do you blame the product, do you blame the company or do you blame yourself for not sticking to it? Do you blame yourself for not having the willpower or the discipline? And chances are it's probably the latter. And then when you do and you start internalizing that there's something wrong with you, then you think the only way for me to solve this is through something external. So let me look for the next program, let me look for the next thing.
Speaker 1:But really, the real reason why none of those things have been working beyond the fact that it's built on guilting you, shaming you and tearing down your self-esteem is that it doesn't address the root cause of what's truly going on with you. If you are struggling with your body image, if you're struggling with your eating habits overeating, emotional eating then focusing on giving yourself rules about when you can or cannot eat, or changing your environment or changing the way that you eat basically changing your behaviors, without changing the thoughts and the emotions that drove those behaviors then you are going to keep making changes at the surface level, because if you're familiar with cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral coaching which is what the approach that I take with my clients then you would know that all behaviors are triggered by an emotion by guilt, by shame, by sadness, by boredom, by excitement, by motivation. All behaviors are triggered by an emotion and all emotion is triggered by your thoughts. So, if your thoughts on a daily basis are I'm a failure, i'm unmotivated, i'm undisciplined, i don't care about my wellness journey, and that's what these companies are doing? right, they're reinforcing those beliefs onto yourself. That's what you're following on social media, right? If you're not at the gym, you're lazy. If you're not eating a salad, you're doing something wrong. If you're eating a cookie instead of a mango, then what the hell are you doing? Right, they're reinforcing these negative beliefs onto you, and your brain takes in whatever information it gets. It doesn't know what's right or wrong, so it just takes it in and it starts internalizing it, and then it becomes part of your identity, right? So you start internalizing this belief, this what becomes your truth, right? Because a belief is just a thought that you've repeated time and time again, enough times that it has become true for you. Right, that you don't even question it. Of course I'm a failure. I've done so many diets and so of course that's proven that I try and I fail, and I try to and I fail. Therefore I am a failure.
Speaker 1:And so when your brain has internalized that, it starts showing you evidence for it, because your brain likes to be right, and so it's not going to go out searching for evidence against what you believe. It's going to go and reinforce what you already believe. This is called your reticular activating system, your RAS, which is basically your brain's filter, right? So think of when you are trying to buy a car and you're looking at this specific car like a white Audi. And I say this because I think a white Audi is just so slick and so beautiful and I would love to have a white Audi. So let's see, you're looking for that car, you're shopping around. What you'll notice is you start seeing it everywhere, right, and you never noticed it before. And now you're seeing those white Audi's everywhere. Those cars then just magically come into your experience. They've always been there, you've just never noticed them.
Speaker 1:Another example is I've never in the past, was never a really big dog person. I love dogs, i think they're really cute. But number one I was allergic I'm still am, but number two I also was attacked by a dog when I was young, and so that created a big fear of dogs, especially big dogs. It was. I was attacked by a golden retriever, which is like the sweetest of all dogs, and that created a fear around them, and I never grew up with dogs in my family. My family's not a pet family, but over the past year I've just completely done a 180 and started becoming obsessed with dogs, and my boyfriend's best friend has a dog. So I see that dog all the time and I want to go to dog parks and I want to go dog watching, and ever since this, my brain has picked up on the fact that like, oh, dogs are now important to you, this is now something that we want to look out for. Then I start noticing dogs everywhere, and when I go for my walks, i'm seeing all different types of dogs. Whereas last year I'd go for my walks and I wouldn't come home and think of, oh, look at all the amazing dogs that I saw, today, no, it would be. Look at the beautiful weather, the kind of people that I saw, and so that was just not part of my part of my filter. And so when we're talking about this mental filter and the kind of identities and the kind of beliefs that you start internalizing, they are so extremely important. Because once you understand the cognitive behavioral coaching model and you understand that all of your behaviors stem from the thoughts that you're having. So let's take an example Over eating, you have one cookie and then your intention was to have one cookie, but you end up having the entire box instead.
Speaker 1:That didn't happen because you don't have enough rules around that cookie. It didn't happen because you're not intermittent fasting. It didn't happen because you lack willpower. I'm going to go ahead and assume that the thought process went a little bit like this You have rules about what is good and bad food and cookies go in the bad category. Therefore your brain has made that connection of There's a rule around this food And so if I break this rule, if I have the cookie, then I've done something bad.
Speaker 1:And so let's say you wake up one day and you start going through the day and someone brings cookies at work, and then your brain, you start relying on willpower, and willpower is temporary. So at work you say you know what? I can't have cookies. Cookies are for special occasions. So I'm not going to have it. And so you start working on that willpower, you start forcing that willpower Again. Willpower is temporary And every time and as the day goes on, you start thinking about that cookie more and more and you start wanting it more and more, until you get home and there's cookies at home and you maybe are tired, you've had a rough day and you decide screw it, i want the cookie, but I'm just going to have one.
Speaker 1:So you have the one cookie. And then that's where your brain kicks in and says well, you've already done something wrong, you've already ruined your day, you've already done something bad. So it's that thought It's not your lack of willpower, it's not a fundamental flaw with you, it's that thought I've done something bad, i shouldn't be having this food that triggers that behavior of eating another one, because you think if I've done something bad, then might as well just take it all the way, have two, three, four, have the whole dance sleeve and get rid of it, get it out of the house and then start again tomorrow. It is the thought process of I shouldn't be doing this that triggers the emotion of guilt and shame that triggers the behavior of overeating. It's not the lack of rules, the lack of discipline. It's not because you don't know enough about nutrition. If the problem was knowing enough about nutrition, we wouldn't have a problem, because there is an unlimited amount of information on Google and books and social media about nutrition. That is not the issue for most people. It's the thoughts that drive the behaviors.
Speaker 1:Of course, when we're looking at all these different apps and social media accounts that are focusing on your behaviors alone, then that is a huge red flag. So, as we're wrapping this episode up, i'm going to give you some things to look out for as you're being exposed to different accounts, different ads, to make sure that you are preserving your own well-being, that you are not letting other people expose and internalize you to more negative beliefs, because your brain will just take that and run with it. If you are being told that you're undisciplined, that you're not doing enough, that you're not good enough, or let me pull back up my email that said that you are not dedicated to your wellness journey, then be very mindful and aware of that. So I would say I'm whipping these red flags out of my head right now, but, considering I've been exposed to a lot of these back in my disordered eating days, i probably have a very good idea. So thanks to look out for number one what I eat in a day videos. What I eat in a day videos have the subtle message that if you eat the same way as me, then you'll look the same way as me, and I remember that it also triggers the comparison game, because then you're like, oh well, i'm not eating that way, i'm not eating as healthy as she is, or I'm not eating as much or as little as she is, so I am probably doing something wrong. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you what I'm eating, what I eat in a day videos. It deemphasizes the fact that everyone's individual, that my needs are not your needs, that my schedule is not your schedule, and it just completely misses the fact that well, of course I talk about intuitive eating that intuitive eating is individual. So what I eat in a day videos.
Speaker 1:A second red flag is people who tell you that certain foods foods are good and other foods are bad. People that tell you that you should have rules and restrictions around what you can or cannot eat, and basically all of these things that they have in common is focusing on behaviors and habits instead of what causes and triggers those behaviors and habits in the first place. Anyone who makes you feel undedicated, who makes you feel bad about yourself. I would say that that's probably a really good guidance system. What I describe in my program to my clients is your emotions are your guidance system, your emotional guiding system. Your emotions are basically a vibration in your body. You feel it When you feel like, when you get bad news, you feel in your gut. For me, when I'm stressed, when I'm anxious, i feel in my shoulders and in my neck. If I'm overwhelmed, i feel it in my head. If I'm happy, i feel light, i feel energetic. So it is a vibration in your body.
Speaker 1:So whenever you get exposed or targeted by some kind of app or some kind of account and your body instantly just feels like oh, i don't like it, i don't like this. This is making me feel more overwhelmed, feel confused, feel bad about myself. That's a really good indication that this might not be the right account for you. And unfollow, unsubscribe, get rid of, because every time that you do that, your algorithm picks up on your behaviors, and so if you start moving away from these accounts, then your algorithm is going to pick up on the fact that she's not interested in this anymore. So I'm going to show her something different.
Speaker 1:And in order to show you something different, in order to show you something that is more empowering, that's going to help you make positive changes, then you have to engage in that kind of behavior, and so I want you to even think of your Instagram algorithm as the same way that your RAS, your Reticular Activating System, works.
Speaker 1:The more you engage in certain kinds of behaviors and certain kind of beliefs, then you are going to start seeing more of that.
Speaker 1:So if you start engaging in behaviors and beliefs that make you feel empowered that's a hard word to say Like I am successful, i can do something, i am disciplined, or I am motivated, or finding all of these positive beliefs about yourself, then you're going to start seeing more of that in your everyday life, because now your brain is searching for evidence for this new belief, and I could do a whole other episode on the thought processes and thought work and how your thoughts affect your beliefs, and I definitely want to do an episode on that, but I'm going to leave you with this When you walk away from this episode, start being extra mindful of the kind of accounts that you follow, the kind of things that you engage in, because chances are they reinforce these beliefs and this belief system that is perpetuated by diet culture, making you feel bad about your body, making you feel like there's something wrong with your body, and perpetuating disordered health habits.
Speaker 1:So this was a very impromptu episode, but the email I got this morning really triggered me and I wanted to talk about it And I want to make sure that I can do everything that I can to help you stay protected from this kind of prey marketing that is rooted in shame and guilt. So I hope that this was helpful. Of course, if you want to engage in more positive, uplifting and empowering content, then head over to my Instagram at Sabrina Magnal Health. Say hello, send me a message, say that you found me through this episode. I would love to talk to you. I answer all of my DMs personally and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday I am so thankful for you and have a great week. I will see you on the next episode.