survival tips for the summer diet culture gauntlet

or: how to stay soft in a season that wants to make you smaller

Summer has arrived — hot, expectant, and loud with messaging about your body.

You know the ones.
“Get bikini ready!”
“Tone up for tank tops!”
“Don’t ruin your progress at the BBQ!”
As if joy and a burger must be earned.
As if your arms must submit to scrutiny before the sun is allowed to kiss them.

We live in a world where summer is sold to us as a body check, not a season.

In fact, the noise is so oppressive and inescapable that my group membership session last week was entirely focused on the diet culture themes that seem to sizzle louder than an egg on the hot pavement (is it actually possible to cook an egg that way?).

I was reflecting after the session, as I always do, and wanted to gently usher some truths back into your hands, should you need them:

• Your real people love you for you, not your body.
  The people who know your laugh, your character, your complexity — they’re not measuring your worth in inches. The ones who matter are already proud of your heart. They cherish your stories, not your symmetry. Your humor, not your waistline. If someone makes you feel like your body is a problem to solve? That may not be your person — at least not right now. And to be clear, relationships are layered. This isn’t an all-or-nothing declaration. It’s a gentle nudge to check in with yourself: How do I feel during and after spending time with this person? Do I leave feeling smaller, or more whole? You deserve spaces where your body is not up for debate.

• You are worthy of special meals without “saving up” for them.
  No need to play nutritional mathlete. No need to skip lunch because there's a dinner plan. That’s not “balance”— that’s compensation, punishment, and restriction in disguise. Your body deserves consistent care, not conditional crumbs. Pleasure in food is not a moral failure. It’s a human right.

• You never have to defend your food choices to anyone.
  Not to the coworker who comments on your “carbs.”
  Not to the relative who has “just started intermittent fasting.”
  Not even to the voice inside you still holding onto old rules.
  Your plate is your business. Your nourishment is your sovereignty. Full stop.

• Wearing comfortable clothes is an act of body kindness.
  If something pinches, rides up, or makes you adjust every five minutes — that’s not your body’s fault. That’s your cue to change the outfit, not throw all the snacks out in your kitchen. Comfort is a doorway to neutrality, and neutrality is often the most honest version of peace.

• Your body is allowed to change.
  Bodies aren’t meant to be frozen in time. They’re living, breathing, evolving reflections of all you’ve carried and all you’ve lived through. We don’t need to “fix” a body just because it looks different in the heat. That might be softness, age, survival, healing, freedom. All important. All valid. All allowed to stay.

So if summer feels less like liberation and more like a gauntlet — I see you.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

And I want you to know that you don’t need to shrink to belong in the sunshine.
You don’t have to sit out the pool party or avoid the pictures or hold your breath around the ice cream truck. All humans are worthy of these experiences.

You get to have a full summer — full plates, full laughter, full belly breathing.

The best part? The more we give ourselves permission to exist in the world without micromanaging our body, the more space we create for others to do the same, and the more safety we cultivate for everybody in every body.

What are you reclaiming from diet culture this summer?

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