Why I focus on a systems approach, not just the individual

Do you know that I've never once successfully convince someone to stop dieting? At least not to my knowledge.

I have scientific evidence of the harm dieting can cause. I have evidence supporting body acceptance and body appreciation. I have plenty of passionate arguments about diet culture, and I will never stop challenging it where I can.

And yet, people will ultimately do what they want to do.

There are two reasons for that.

The first is simple: your body, your choice.

I genuinely believe that. Every single one of us has the right to decide what we do with our own bodies, as long as it doesn't harm others. In that sense, it's not really my place to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do. Even though, I'll admit, I sometimes struggle to sit back and keep quiet when I see diet culture in action.

But the second reason is the one I find most interesting — and most important. Because what we do with our bodies is not nearly as much of an individual choice as we like to believe.

I've written about this before. If you want to lose weight, lose weight. If you want to focus on your appearance, focus on your appearance. Those decisions are yours to make. But it's worth asking where those desires and pressures are coming from in the first place.

Because they rarely start with us.

They live in stigmatising public health policies that often ignore scientific evidence and sometimes prioritise profit over well-being. They live in the comments we hear from significant — and insignificant — others throughout our lives. They live in the very human desire to fit in, to belong, to be accepted, and, if we're being honest, to access the privileges that come with fitting the societal appearance ideal.

They also live in the environments we move through every day. In shops that don't carry clothes for all bodies. In gyms that don't accommodate all bodies. In chairs, seats, uniforms, and equipment that quietly and loudly communicate who belongs and who doesn't.

In other words, the pressure to shrink our bodies doesn't just come from inside us. It is constantly reinforced by the systems and people around us.

This is why my work focuses less on telling individuals what they should do, and more on challenging and changing these systems. It's not my job to police people's bodies or their choices. But I do believe it's my job to make the broader context visible.

To point out the forces shaping those choices.

If only so that we can pause for a moment and ask ourselves: is this something I genuinely want? Or is it something I've been taught to want?

Because when we recognise those external pressures, we can start to ask a deeper question: whether shrinking our bodies is really worth the time, energy, money, and mental space it so often demands.

And whether denying ourselves pleasure — food, rest, movement for joy, time with others, the freedom to simply exist — is a price we truly want to pay.

So if focusing on weight loss or appearance feels right for you, that is your decision. I'm not here to take that away.

But I do think it's worth being curious about the why.

And in the meantime, I'll keep doing what I believe my work is about: trying to change the systems that make us believe shrinking our bodies is something we should be striving for in the first place.

That's all for now—thank you for being here and for making a commitment to make movement spaces more inclusive for all bodies!