To diet or not to diet

It’s common that people booking their shoots like to diet down for it, they want to reduce bodyfat to reveal the muscle underneath, and if you’re a bodybuilder, you’ll often want to book your shoot when you’re at your leanest, because it’s taken a hell of a lot of sacrifice to get to the stage, so of course you’d want to have a shoot in order to commemorate the intense level of effort to get to that point.

But most people don’t realise that not dieting is also an option. You can book a shoot and show up in your year round condition, whilst still looking fantastic.

I’ll give you a little bit of honesty and insight into myself here, since about the age of 12 I’ve had a disordered relationship with food and a distorted view of my body, and I know I’m not alone in this. I’ve spent all of my teens and much of my adult life so far battling myself, trying to control food and then bingeing, starving myself, highly restricting the foods I would allow myself to eat, checking my body constantly in the mirror, staring at the fat on my stomach and berating it, not feeling like I was enough when I wasn’t at the leanest point of a dieting phase, using exercise as punishment.
It wasn’t until May 2021, after yet another cut, having had a total meltdown after the battery on my food scales died without backup so I couldn’t allow myself to eat, that I finally decided to tackle this head on. I forced myself to dive head first into intuitive eating, letting myself eat as much as I wanted of any food, nothing was off limits. I identified all the ridiculous food rules I’d set up for myself, began noticing myself body checking and stopping myself each time, countering the negative self talk, and got comfortable with carrying more bodyfat (Believe me, this was NOT easy!!).
When I competed at the AWPC world powerlifting championships earlier this year, I had to diet down slightly to make sure I made weight, but did this in a more intuitive manner, and even then I noticed in just a week how the behaviours I had tried to heal very quickly reared their ugly heads once again.
This has made it evident to me that I will never diet again for the sake of aesthetics, only briefly for the purpose of making my weight class which I generally hover around anyway.

I’m aware my story isn’t unique, especially in the fitness space. Disordered food relationships and distorted body image issues are rife in our space, and the level of distress that puts on an individual is overwhelming.

Which is why I’m writing this blog, because I believe wholeheartedly that we must learn to accept ourselves and heal these behaviours, and I want to be part of that healing.

I don’t believe that dieting down is a key component for a photoshoot. I look at the human body as a moving form of art, it is shape and form, and through posing and lighting, we articulate that artistry further. It’s not about what cuts and lines you can see, it’s about the overall shape, how the lines of the body guide the eye through an image, how we convey the message of who we are through this visual medium.

If you want to be lean for a shoot, then I have nothing against it, it’s your personal choice because this shoot is all about you. If your aim is to show off strong muscular definition, or you want to do a long dieting phase for an end goal, then all the power to you! That’s your personal choice, and you’ll look fantastic.

But I’ve now had a number of clients who’ve said that they purposely chose not to diet down for their shoot, that they wanted this to be a celebration of their body in a more natural state, part of their own personal healing journey to come home to themselves and get outside of their comfort zone to push this healing further.
I will admit that knowing I can give the gift of a positive experience to help people on the journey of loving themselves is the most rewarding thing for me.

I want people to see their bodies in a truer light, to experience themselves as a form of beauty, something to be honoured, loved, and appreciated. And if I can do that through my work, then I’ve fulfilled my purpose on this Earth.