The words we use about bodies are doing more damage than you think.

Think about the last time someone's body came up in conversation.

At the dinner table. In the group chat. A comment someone left on a photo.

It probably felt pretty normal, right?

Just chat.

Just banter.

But...

The language we use about other people's bodies doesn't just affect them.

It shapes the way we think and feel about our own.

And in this week's episode of Chatting with Cara, that's exactly what I'm talking about.

Why does the language even matter?

We're surrounded by it.

Throwaway comments.

Jokes at the dinner table.

Observations about someone who's lost weight or gained it.

And we absorb all of it.

Every single bit of it.

When we hear bodies being commented on, judged, compared, and ranked, our brain files it away.

And it starts doing the same thing to us.

To our own body.

The cycle is so deeply ingrained that most of us don't even notice we're in it.

That's the problem.

This is generational. And it can be broken.

I'm not going to pretend this is a quick fix.

In fact in coaching this is the first thing that I deal with - language because it's so powerful.

I want to move diet culture as a whole but that's a 10, 15-year conversation.

Maybe longer.

But breaking the cycle in your own life, your own home, your own family?

That can start today.

And it starts with something as simple as noticing the words you use.

Not talking about other people's bodies.

Not commenting on what someone's eating, what someone looks like, whether someone has lost or gained weight.

That's it.

That's where it begins.

What happens when we change the language?

Quietly, gradually, we start to release the grip that diet culture has on us.

We stop seeing our own body as a problem to be solved.

We start making decisions around food that feel natural.

This is the deep work.

The stuff I do with every single one of my 1-1 clients.

Not meal plans.

Not calorie counting.

Just getting to the root of why we eat the way we do, and why we feel the way we feel.

One thing you can do today.

Don't comment on other people's bodies today.

Not in person.

Not in your head.

Not in the group chat.

Just try it and see what it does to the way you feel about your own.

This week's episode goes into all of this properly.

It's one of those ones that'll sit with you.

In a good way.

Listen to Chatting with Cara here.