Let’s ditch traditional resolutions this year and focus on adding in more, instead of subtracting, in 2024.  Hannah takes us through her story below. Check out Rooted Yoga + Fitness’ new studio space Rise in Beaverdale for more space, classes, and community.

Warning: The following is an op-ed piece that discusses eating disorders, diet culture, and body image issues. Please take care when reading and decide if reading on is best for you. 

Written By: Hannah Cutler, Owner of Rooted Yoga + Fitness

I spent the first few hours of 2020 pacing back-and-forth in my living room trying to burn off the food I had allowed myself to eat just a few hours before.

My New Year’s resolution was to lose 3 more pounds, no matter the cost. I was in the midst of a full-blown eating disorder so this late night pacing wasn’t an unusual thing for me to do. I had spent the last year engaging in behaviors like this: eating as little as possible and using exercise to compensate for what food I did allow myself to eat.

Even though I knew these were unhealthy and disordered behaviors, it wasn’t uncommon for me to hear things like this encouraged in the fitness studio I was working at. Within the studio I would often hear people (mostly women) say things like “I need to burn off that cake I ate!” or, “That workout was hard – I earned my dinner tonight!” Between my eating disorder and my job, my entire life was thoroughly steeped in diet culture.

Diet culture is a set of beliefs that teach us thinness is the ultimate marker of health, attractiveness, and worthiness. Diet culture tells us the sole purpose of exercise is to lose weight or obtain a certain look. It also tells us that some foods are “good” while others are “bad.” It makes us believe the lie that if we just try hard enough we can all achieve our dream body. And worst of all, it tells us that we are unworthy of success, happiness, and love if we don’t look a certain way.

The New Year is a normal time for folks to want to make a change or a new commitment, but what would it be like if we left diet culture out of our resolutions this year?-Hannah Cutler

Unfortunately, diet culture becomes even louder and more prevalent around the New Year. Every winter, we’re bombarded with messages screaming “New Year, new me!” along with tips on how to exercise to make up for all the sweets we enjoy over the holidays. I remember using the rec center in college after the New Year and barely being able to find open equipment because so many people made a resolution to have a “healthy lifestyle.” Sure enough, a month later, the rec center was a ghost town and those people were nowhere to be found.

To be very clear, I do not look down on these people for quitting their new fitness routine after a month. They didn’t fail their “healthy lifestyle” resolution; diet culture simply tricked them. What diet culture doesn’t tell us is that its standards for beauty and health are both unobtainable and unsustainable. If we create resolutions based on what diet culture tells us we should do, they are sure to fail. The New Year is a normal time for folks to want to make a change or a new commitment, but what would it be like if we left diet culture out of our resolutions this year?

When I think about resolutions now I try to think of things I can add to my life, rather than things I want to subtract. (Unless of course your resolution is to completely subtract diet culture from your life; that is the one subtraction I can get behind.)

My resolutions? I want to get physically stronger. I want to meditate more. I want to finally spend some good quality time with loved ones after two long years of being apart. When I think of things I want to add, I naturally gravitate toward things that make me feel good, things that enrich my life, things that help me take up space and own the skin I’m in. These things help me grow instead of shrink, and what is life if we’re not growing?

When I think about resolutions now I try to think of things I can add to my life, rather than things I want to subtract.-Hannah Cutler

I’ve learned a lot in the past few years of eating disorder recovery. A lot of overcoming my eating disorder involved recognizing diet culture and how pervasive it is in our everyday lives. I started noticing the way people spoke about food, exercise, and their bodies. I noticed the messaging that came across in fitness spaces, telling people the only reason to workout is to lose weight. I noticed fitness professionals giving unqualified (and unhealthy) dietary advice to help clients lose weight. I noticed the fatphobia. I noticed women only picking up light dumbbells because they don’t want to get “bulky.” And then I decided I wasn’t going to be part of it anymore.

I got the keys for the studio that would soon become Rooted Yoga + Fitness on January 1st, 2021. My resolution was to create a space for everyone that would teach them that their body isn’t a vessel designed to shrink, but to grow.

I opened Rooted Yoga + Fitness three months later, in March of 2021. I’m proud to say that a lot of breakthroughs have happened here. People who used to hate working out now look forward to it. People who used to hate their bodies are starting to appreciate how strong they are. People have started challenging the lies diet culture taught them. I believe a world without diet culture is possible.

It starts with one resolution that isn’t rooted in diet culture.

It starts with one person adding, not subtracting.

It starts with one person choosing to grow instead of shrink.

The Des Moines Girl team is so grateful to Hannah for sharing her story and opening an anti-diet culture fitness space for the community here in Des Moines. If you’re experiencing disordered eating, unhealthy habits, or just comparing yourself too damn much to what you see on social media, know that you’re NOT alone. Help is available. Recovery is possible.

Cheers to ADDING not subtracting in 2024. 🥂

Questions for Hannah? Email her here.