Hello friends!
Welcome back to Endless Growth! If you’re new here, this is a newsletter focused on personal development where we pivot away from hustle culture and towards happiness with a focus on creating meaningful, fulfilled, balanced lives. In this lifestyle newsletter, we reflect on content that sparks ideas and growth.
So this week (and beyond) I’ve been having an existential crisis. I’ve talked to many of you about this and it turns out I’m not the only one (cool). I guess that’s 30, or just life really. It’s been about 5 years since my last existential crisis so things are on track.
Weirdly enough, what really got me thinking about ~life~ started with diet culture and deciphering the line between healthy habits and unhealthy obsession about healthy habits.
These two things, diet culture and existential crises, are very related; I’ll explain more, but first, I’ll define diet culture as societal expectations around bodies that prioritize thinness, whiteness, and abled-bodyness.
It occurred to me recently that diet culture didn’t just pop out of thin air; it had to start somewhere right? So I did some digging and it seems that the idea of a “diet” started with the Greeks who believed that a healthy body equated to a healthy mind and therefore a healthy society. The Greeks saw health as a lifestyle that was predominantly about building strength and preventing disease. Not quite diet culture as we know it today.
The further politicization of the body seems to have many many roots: religion, sexism, and racism.
Religion: Christians saw fat as literal sin on the body whether that sin be gluttony, temptation, or general lack of morality.
Sexism: Who some people call the original diet influencer, Lord Bryon, a famous poet during the era of the romantics, popularized ideas like vinegar for weight loss and the whole concept that eating is simply not-ladylike (with some exceptions like salads and alcohol). Bryon himself also suffered from an eating disorder that gave him a gaunt look that became popular.
Racism: White women saw dieting as a way to disassociate themselves from the bodies of Black women.
But diet culture has always been about more than just bodies and thinness. The first books about diet were always focused on longevity and reducing disease in the body. Over time this morphed into an aesthetic obsession but if you dig deeper, it’s always been about the unfaltering belief that we will eventually find a way to outsmart death (we will not).
We see it today in green powders, electrolyte drinks, prebiotic sodas, and cosmetically and medically altered bodies that all give the impression of health and make us believe we’re practicing something that will help us be “healthier.”
Healthier for what? For some people it’s thinness, others longevity, others quality of life, and others don’t even know why – maybe their favorite influencer sold the concept of health to them. Capitalism and pure ignorance are always at play too.
The craze of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are astronomical for two reasons: 1) they offer the possibility of not only thinness but 2) the reduction of inflammation in the body which would be revolutionary in the way we prevent and treat chronic diseases.
Ozempic is not just talked about as a weight-loss drug, but sometimes as the way we live longer, continuing diet culture’s core belief that eventually, we might outsmart death.
And I get it.
Out of stress from watching people in my life age, I have been hyper focused on my health lately. I’ve been obsessed with steps, resistance training, cardio, mobility, decreasing my consumption of not just ultra-processed foods but anxiety-inducing and stressful media content while also prioritizing my social relationships and sleep.
Just taking care of me is a full time job and all of the systems we’ve built make these seemingly simple things really hard.
The good news is that these actions matter. They do make you feel better and live longer but these actions are no guarantee of anything – you can’t actually control aging or avoid dying. I persist, because these actions give me some sense of control and autonomy over something I have no power in.
So where’s the line? When do healthy habits become diet culture? I think it’s when we get so rigid in preventing death that we forget to live a little.
**Changing Content Alert**
I spend a lot of time reflecting here on what I’ve been consuming and why I think it matters and I’m not sure that’s a useful practice anymore. I want to share what I find interesting without having to defend its content.
I’ll continue sharing what I’ve been consuming but what that means for you is ultimately up to you. Moving forward these sections will be way shorter but hopefully they’re still valuable to you.
✨ Thought-provoking
Exploring Health Systems
This episode of Jay Shetty’s podcast with Dr. Casey Means for a truly profound exploration of current health systems and how they are not set up to keep us healthy.
My thoughts: It’s eye-opening to understand what doctors don’t know. Unfortunately that means it’s on us to figure out how to read our own medical charts and really get to the heart of understanding our own health – doctors aren’t actually trained to do this for us the way we think they are.
Exploring Integrative Health
This interview with Dr. Weil for a crash course in integrative medicine.
My thoughts: I really enjoy health professionals' focus on body, mind, and soul not as separate entities but things working in tandem. You’ll enjoy this episode if you’re interested in holistic approaches to health.
Exploring Spirituality
This conversation with psychic medium Laura Lynne Jackson on the power of intuition, inner peace, and self-awareness.
My thoughts: I’m a spiritual person and think tapping into faith, or spirituality, or whatever you believe in, can unlock a higher wisdom or understanding about ourselves and the world, especially in the ~existential~ moments. I found this conversation to be such a powerful listen.
Connection
The Case for Prioritizing Friends
This article from the Washingtonian on the case for friendships as something as important if not more important than romantic relationships.
My thoughts: What would it look like to build a life around my friendships instead of just squeezing them in? This article talks about it in an extreme form but I wonder how this practice might be adopted to fit my life.
Do you have any friends raising kids together? What are your thoughts on this?
Well-Being
Taking a Break
This video from my favorite author, John Green, getting honest about mental health and the need to take a break.
My thoughts: What you see on the internet is not real life, most people aren’t showing what’s happening behind the scenes.
What I’m up to
Space Cowboy
This one goes out to Liz’s annual summer bash. I didn’t think anything could top Liz’a Luau but Space Cowboy was one for the books.
My thoughts: I’ve already discussed why I think we should have more parties – and more importantly, we should have more themed parties. #365partygirl
What’s a good theme for a future party?
Summer Solstice at the Smithsonian
The American History Museum put on an event for Summer Solstice dedicated to the global rise of reggaeton featuring a curated panel on the topic to music from DJ’s who brought up some of the biggest reggaeton stars.
Later in the night, I partied at the castles between the Asian and African Art Museums for a proper museum rave.
My thoughts: I don’t think any other city in the world will get me the way DC does. To get to listen in on a free lecture about the history of reggaeton followed by a night of drinks and dancing at the Smithsonians? I love it here.
What’s your reggaeton anthem was the closing question of the panel. What’s yours? Mine is Ella Me Levanto by Daddy Yankee.
What has my attention
Brat – girl, so confusing
So on my first listen, I didn’t like Brat and needed this Popcast episode to explain it to me (turns out I was just too offline to get the references) – but I’ve grown to love the album and especially a song I use to loathe but now love: girl, so confusing, the version with Lorde.
My thoughts: It’s a really beautiful song about female friendship, how our own insecurities manifest into our beliefs about other people, and how we often believe perception is reality but often the stories we tell ourselves aren’t real.
What’s your favorite song on Brat? Mine is spring breakers and symphony is a knife.
That’s all for now, friends! Remember, what you water grows — see you next time! 💗
—Nar