acrux astonishing: Anne the Adventurer: No, I Will Not Go On a Diet With You / Choose ...

In our culture, we seem to find peace in the common struggle to be thin and look perfect. We engage in group put-down sessions where we repeatedly talk about things we hate about ourselves or what we want to change, and it's not uncommon to hear people talking about their latest diet.

I've been in many a situation where I'm at a party and someone suggests we all take a picture together. You know how this goes. Everyone gathers, people suck in their stomachs or turn their heads in just the right way, the way they've practiced so you can't see that double chin, and Snap!?the picture is taken. Then, we gather around the camera to look at the captured image, and take turns saying what we don't like about it. Oh my gosh, I look so tired. My hair is all messed up! That double chin, blech. I look so fat.

It's usually moments like these where the conversation turns to dieting or health or fitness. We go through our rolodex of fad diets, which ones we've tried and failed at. And this is when I about when the question comes out: I'm going on a new diet. Do you want to try it with me?

I am so sick of this.

So sick of the line of thought that diets are the answer, that thinness is the answer to all of our problems, and that if we don't change, we're doomed.

I wrote a bit about this on Tuesday, about how these sorts of questions are intrusive and insulting to me, but I wanted to go a bit deeper. Deeper into what I think is the way out of all of this diet talk.

There are so many facets to this, but I think it all comes down to one simple phrase: I am enough.

As I sit at my desk typing these words, I stopped to think about if I believe this phrase, in this exact moment. It takes some twisting and bending of my usual questions - am I thin? Am I well dressed? Those aren't the right roads. So I turn to the fact that I am healthy, that my skin is clear because I am eating whole, nutritious foods and exercising a few times a week. That my mind is alive and the creative juices are flowing. That I am contributing my story to the world, to this blog, to the Choose Beauty series. That I am in a strong and healthy marriage. That I have beautiful friendships.

I could go on.

The truth is, I am enough. Without changing one thing about myself, I am enough.

It's hard for me to write about this because I am at a point in my recovery where I am trying to lose the weight I gained when I first entered treatment last year. I'm doing it in a healthy way, and I am being monitored by health care professionals. With every meal, I think about my eating disorder and dieting, and can you imagine how hard it is to make the healthy choice to eat in a balanced way when I am being asked about going on a diet?

Diets don't work. Balanced, healthy eating works.?

But before any of that, you have to believe that you are enough.

Do you?

Image by?Lou Mora.?