Happy Blogiversary to Dare To Not Diet!

Dare to Eat Cake.

A year ago I started this blog with the idea that I had something to say about a better way to live our lives, at least when it came to food and our weight. I wanted to be one of the voices that spoke out against the diet industry that profits from the insecurity they help manufacture and sells us lies and sham products and then blames us for their lack of success.

Meanwhile, I had some insecurities of my own. I wasn’t sure if I could produce weekly content that people would want to read. I wasn’t sure how much of myself to expose to the internet, which can be a scary place. I didn’t know if I could make one iota of difference in supporting people to get off the diet treadmill. I actually thought if 100 people read this blog by the end of the next year, I’d be thrilled.

Well, I am beyond thrilled. This year, I had 18,351 visitors. For the last 6 months, I averaged 2,379 visitors a month. That’s probably not a lot compared to many blogs, but considering I started out with 300 visitors last January…well, I’m incredibly grateful for every single one of you. I ended up with 172 subscribers and I thank every single one of them for signing up to hear me rant against the diet industry and for Health at Every Size® weekly.

I got to hear from people who are recovering from eating disorders and people who are learning to love their bodies and heal their relationship to food and who told me they found this blog a source of support — they are some pretty cool people. I made some great online allies. Because people were reading and seemed to want more, I felt encouraged enough to start a podcast with my friend Aaron Flores, RDN, which has been so much fun for me. I got to be on Christy Harrison’s Food Psych podcast to talk about my history with food and dieting which was so very super cool. I guest blogged on NEDIC. I was asked to participate in some more projects for the coming year which I’ll reveal as they come to fruition!

Beyond my blog, I saw the body positive movement go mainstream this year. Sometimes, living in my little bubble, tailoring my social media feeds to non-diet bliss, I’m not sure what’s going on outside in the real world. But I asked around and looked around and sure enough, there it was – body positivity everywhere. Let’s not let the diet industry co-opt this movement for nefarious profit. Let’s continue to make this movement of nourishing ourselves and loving ourselves just the way we are something that lasts and doesn’t disappear from our collective memory as fast as the Ice Bucket Challenge did.

And let’s keep the ball rolling. Let’s keep talking about how diets don’t work, how we can be healthy without going hungry, and how we can respect our wonderful bodies right now. Let’s someday make the diet industry a thing of the past.

So, Happy 1st Blogiversary to my blog and thank you to everyone who visited and subscribed and shared…the message of this blog is nothing without all of you. I wish I could share this cake with you. Keep fighting the good fight and here’s to a New Year of daring to not diet!

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