Diet is a 4 Letter Word. Or is It?
When you hear the word diet what do you think of? What kinds of feelings does it bring up?
My immediate response is to think back to 6th grade when I was following Weight Watchers with my mom and eating lettuce with only salt sprinkled on it, cans of tuna, and carrots dipped in mustard.
Not good feelings around the word diet for sure.
I struggle with this word. Is it a 4 letter word or is it not?
I’ll admit that even though my initial response to the word is negative, I do use it both ways.
Let me explain. If you read my bio or hear me talk about what I do and who I help, I will say “I help women who are tired of the diets, gimmicks, and quick fixes and help them learn to live a fit and healthy life that leads to freedom.” (I guess I added an ‘s’ to diet, so now it’s a 5 letter word in this case! I’m off the hook…maybe!)
But then if you give up the word diet, how do you explain or talk about what you eat?
Do you say “what I eat”?
How about “food intake”?
Maybe you could say “nutrition”?
If I go to the thesaurus, it suggests I could talk about my daily “grub,” my “provisions.” But this is best one yet…victuals. Lol! Maybe I could start using that. What do you think? Would people think I was weird?
What word do you use when you explain what you eat? #antidiet #focus Click To Tweet
I don’t know. I just feel like it works better to use the word diet in some of those cases, but diet as a neutral word, not a negative word. For instance, my diet includes everything from leafy greens to Reese’s cups. For real!
As a noun, diet is the foods eaten, according to dictionary.com. But as a verb it means to regulate the food of.
I like the noun version. To diet as an action sounds restrictive and negative. As a noun, it is neutral. Then if you take it the next step and check out the thesaurus it tends toward the negative (in my mind anyway) and has words like restriction and regime. No thank you.
So I want to clear this up: Diet is not a 4 letter word.
At least when I use it to refer to the way I eat, it’s just that, the way I eat. Not good, bad, or otherwise.
I will never tell you to diet. It will not be used as a verb here. Never be used as a verb here. It will be a noun.
Is diet a 4 letter word? Depends on how you use it. #antidiet Click To Tweet
Hopefully we’ve cleared that up. In this space, we don’t talk about diets, gimmicks, and quick fixes. We’re not buying or selling products to get fast weight loss.
I’m here to support you on your journey to a sustainable healthy lifestyle that includes establishing a healthy diet (neutral word here!) of a variety of foods that you like and that benefit your unique body.
If you haven’t already, be sure to snag my Faith and Fitness Framework that breaks down the 4 key areas that you need to focus on to establish a sustainable healthy lifestyle!
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i do feel like the word diet has negative connotation, mostly because, to me, it sounds like restriction and not a long term solution. i prefer nutrition! 🙂
I hear you! Nutrition is a good alternative. It’s hard to think of diet without the negative surrounding it.
Because I feel that the word has a negative feel to it, I actually don’t use it . When I want to lose weight I say I’m going to “eat healthier”.
And eating healthy is a lifestyle, not a diet. I totally agree with you!