What Frog Hunting and Dieting Have in Common

My son ran towards me with an enormous, squirmy frog dangling from his hand. 

“Finally!” he shouted. It had been over an hour of searching before he caught this elusive Spring Peeper. 

I ran towards him to see the evidence because minutes earlier I had given up the search and started walking home. 

We live near a wooded area with several small ponds (aka vernal pools) which are a hot magnet for Spring Peepers. The sound of these nocturnal creatures rivals a gorgeous orchestra and makes you feel like you're in the middle of the rainforest. It’s a true sign of New England Spring when this evening melody fills the air. 

We'd been listening to this critter chorus for a few nights and our draw to hunt for these frogs felt like following a siren song. We simply had to go!

Yesterday late afternoon when the orchestra started tuning up, we donned our rain boots and jackets and headed toward the music. 

We searched the pond edges, nothing. 

We searched mud pockets near water, nothing. 

We stirred leaves in the water, nothing. 

We followed sounds and trails, nothing. 

The sound was almost deafening, impossible to ignore. It was as if thousands of frogs were playing their tune. Oddly enough though, we couldn’t find ANY frogs. We were sure we’d find one as we followed the sound, but we were empty handed as we left spot after spot and followed the next call. 

Soon enough we were literally walking in circles chasing a seemingly invisible treasure. 

They had to be there, right? Should we give up or keep going? 

Of course, this got me thinking about diet culture. 

Just like the Spring Peeper chorus, diet culture’s noise is so loud and attractive. You feel like you must check it out. Ads, commercials, potions, lotions, pills, powders, promises and pedalers are all calling to you about how their product will *finally* be the secret to you and your life becoming gorgeous. 

Don't be fooled though. These pedalers count on you searching and trying and failing until you literally are going in circles on the endless loop of the diet binge cycle.  

Diet culture claims to have the answers, but where are the real frogs, aka the people who’ve lost weight and kept it off for 3-5 years without signs of physical or mental duress? 

Spoiler alert: they’re NOWHERE to be found since they’re virtually nonexistent. 

Turn down the volume on this tempting diet culture siren song. Even though it seems impossible to ignore. This is one case where giving up is the right thing to do.

I invite you to hear diet culture’s claims of (pretend) glory and move along. Give up your search within a broken system and you’ll have the time and energy to appreciate the signs of Spring, appreciate your body and appreciate your valuable time and energy that can be used for a helluva lot better ways than dieting. 

If you need help hunting for new ways to spend your time outside of dieting, click those shiny links below for some online yoga and a way to ditch diets for good because the music is actually better and more gorgeous when you’re living a diet free life.