I have lost some weight which has set off a strange wave of paranoia among people that I have either had my stomach stapled or shut off with a rubber band, or am on some freaky raw food diet or whatever.
What happened was that I was fucking sick and tired of dieting and working out. I fucking was sick and tired of buying clothes that were too small for me so I could ‘thin into them.’ I was fucking sick and tired of eating 5 to 7 small meals a day. I was sick and tired of no carbs. I was fucking sick and tired of thinking about food and not thinking about food. I was fucking sick and tired of my trainer and any type of exercise. I went to a nutritionist and I lost a lot – of money. I never left his office without dropping at least a grand on bullshit. Shakes, pills, supplements, food substitutes, exercise programs. I said “FUCKING FUCK THIS FUCK IT FUCK IT SERIOUSLY FUCK IT FUCK IT FUCK IT FUCK FUCK FUCK IT!!!!”
I stopped going to Fred Segal and getting the one thing in the whole store that fit me. I started buying clothes that fucking fit me, like now. I put away all notions of what diets meant to me, what I was supposed to eat and not supposed to eat. I altogether lost the thought process that carried me through my life – my dieting and exercise regimen – and started thinking about the people I loved, hated, tolerated, laughed at, laughed with. There was a lot of time to read. I wanted to watch old movies. I ate a lot of shitty food. I gained some weight and it was scary. But it didn’t really make a difference. Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. I stopped exercising, and started writing. I played with my dogs. I looked at shit on Ebay. I started to eat what I wanted – and kept doing it. Not a food vacation – not a respite between diets. I just was going to eat eat eat eat eat eat and fucking eat some more.
Then, I kind of started to get weirdly thinner. I get it now. Because I don’t care about food, it is there when I want it, I don’t crave it and want it and think about it. Since I can have everything, nothing is that important. I don’t need to eat a whole cake because I can eat a whole cake every day every meal if I want and I don’t care. I don’t prepare to eat because I might be hungry later and ‘they’ won’t have what I have to eat. When I am hungry, I eat. You know, that is what the weird diet is.
Here is what I usually eat every day. In the morning I have a bowl of cereal with two kinds mixed, granola and LIFE. If I am in a hotel, I have granola and yogurt, croissants, one chocolate and one regular and then a big cranberry juice. I drink a lot of water, and a lot of lemonade, regular COKE – no diet anything ever. After that, I usually eat a peanut butter cup or something like that. Then I get to work, which is writing usually, recording sometimes, interviews, etc.. I get hungry later around early afternoon, and so I eat what I think is a good thing at the moment, which could be mac and cheese, or pizza. I eat as much as I want, but it is usually too rich to eat all of it and since I am not dieting and I don’t need to cram the forbidden food in before the diet starts up again, I eat as much as I feel good eating and leave the rest. I leave a lot on the plate because I need not clean my plate. Why? I don’t have to. And the value of not having to finish all my food, probably has been the biggest contributor to my healing around food. I used to feel like I needed to eat all of it, all and then some, but actually, it doesn’t feel good to do that. It doesn’t taste good. I can have more when I am hungry again. I eat dinner late, usually with friends. I like appetizers. I will order 3-4 types, so I can have a variety of edible treats, instead of an entrée. If I order entrées, it would be more than one, because I deserve to eat what I like. I never eat leftovers. I never take anything home. I never eat anything that doesn’t taste heavenly. I never eat when I am not hungry. I never let myself get too hungry. I never deny myself a fucking thing because I have denied myself enough for 1000 lifetimes and there is no more denial for me in the way that I live. I deserve all the mozzarella sticks, all the fucking chocolate, all the fucking pizza, all the chicken a’la king, and I deserve to leave what I don’t finish on the plate.
So there you go. Big secret diet. Love. Love and the audacity to actually waste food.
Tags: Beauty & Body Image, General, Women's Issues
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[...] Margaret Cho has a really funny blog post about how she gave up dieting and lost weight. Really funny. [...]
[...] Margaret Cho’s The F*** It Diet [...]
[...] this pithy, blunt, and adjective-laced** explanation of her own attitudes toward dieting may actually sever my lingering loyalty to the Clean Plate [...]
[...] Cho’s “diet” where you eat what you want, you don’t have to eat anything you don’t want, and [...]
[...] Here is Margaret’s post about the “Fuck It’ diet, from http://www.margaretcho.com/blog/2003/11/06/the-fuck-it-diet/ [...]
Thank you so much for posting this! I come from a family of women who diet constantly and hate themselves for gaining weight. A few years ago, I was at an all time low of 124 pounds (I’m 5’3″) I now weigh 155 and I don’t care. I have a boyfriend who loves me for who I am, and I started buying clothes that fit …I threw out my size 8 jeans and bought 12′s…I threw out my B cup bras and bought C’s…I feel much cuter in my clothes now, and I really don’t care that I’ve gained 31 pounds. My poor mom still hates herself because she thinks she’s fat. I refuse to live my life that way. I’m sick of counting calories and feeling guilty. Fuck it!!!!
I’m crying right now, this is what I needed.
I’m so hard on myself, I am my worst and harshest critic. I am fifteen and although I truly thought I was done with it I am struggling still with my eating disorder. It’s so hard. Everyday I don’t what to do, what to feel, how to act.
I wish I could believe and follow the Fuck It Diet… I try so hard to everyday.
[...] I love her “fuck it” diet. [...]
Hi Margret thanks i need your diet it is the best their is because it’s not a diet that’s great i am going to read it every day because diet thoughts alway’s pop up in my head again thank you for f diet now i got to put your thinking into my head and do the f diet thank you again charlie69
Hi Margret thank you for the f diet i need to your post every to fight the diet thougts you are right diets suck and the make people fatter again thanks again charlie69 the 69 is my age
I am on the Fuck It diet because the fact of the matter is that I just don’t fit the FOBby/media-friendly Korean woman mold (very intimidating when all the Koreans around you DO – Thin City all the way.). I’m a mother of two, and I have a little bit of a muffin top that spills over my Land’s End khakis. It really bothers me. But guess what? The lady in the post office told me today, “You have the most beautiful smile. And you know what? I think it’s genuine, and that’s the best part about it.” So you know what? Fuck you self-critical voice in my head (a 30-year compilation of shit female relatives said to my face and within my ear-shot). Fuck you people who only want to see me through the lens of your own ignorance and Lucy Liu fantasies. Margaret is so empowering, and she speaks the truth. Margaret, I love you!!! You are my hero. (Did I mention I love you?)
[...] would put on my eating dress and panic-eat entire pizzas and boxes of chocolates. I have no problem eating this way to satisfy hunger, but I wasn’t eating two whole pizzas and entire boxes of sees candy (large from Dominos with [...]
YOU save lives. YOU empower people. YOU bring me up. YOU are a bright brilliant light in the universe.
I thought you might get a kick out of this music video of Give Me the Food by Miss Platnum –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqkOnoLe70k
Enjoy. (-:
[...] an awesome idea. This guy hasn’t cornered the market on this idea though; there’s Margaret Cho’s Fuck It Diet, and Amy Sedaris’ Fuck it Bucket, for instance. Anyway, I could continue rambling, but fuck [...]
The “F” it diet is very similar to a book about using your internal wisdom to heal your relationship with food. Written by 2 dieticians and nutritional therapists, “Intuitive Eating” is an amazing resource for this dazzling journey towards healing. Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch http://www.intuitiveeating.org Cheers to loving ourselves and being present in our present bodies.
You are so brilliant that right now I am fantasizing about covering you in cheese and chocolate syrup and sour cream and…wait, what were we talking about again?
Seriously though, great post. Thank you.
Tsada K.
[...] meal, because–well, I know my limits. In the meantime, Jen of Aid & Abet leads me to Margaret Cho’s “Fuck-It” diet. Thanks, Jen! Go [...]
amen, sista.
It’s healthy not to make a big deal out of food for sure, but to advocate wasting food? If only everyone had your taste in heavenly food and neglect of leftovers, the price of available food stuff could rise so much faster because of greater demand coupled with lesser availability! Personally, I can’t afford to eat this way, and love when a restaurant gives me big portions so I can eat half at the diner and half at home the next day.
btw, exercise does more for you than just help you lose body fat. Human and animal bodies are made to be moved.
foods that are healthy to heart…
[...]The “Fuck It” Diet « Margaret Cho[...]…
[...] is the case for Margaret, who in a blog post “The Fuck It Diet” (Click here) entails how she finally lost the weight that was holding her back. The key was exactly what her 5 [...]
Easy 7 Day Diet Tips…
[...]The “Fuck It” Diet « Margaret Cho[...]…
[...] is the case for Margaret, who in a blog post “The Fuck It Diet” (Click here) entails how she finally lost the weight that was holding her back. The key was exactly what her 5 [...]
[...] The “Fuck It” Diet [...]
Fruits and veggies I eat, lots of grapes/bananas/apples/watermelon,etc, flushes out the system. Other than that, beans,rice,fish,mostly oriental type stuff I eat (the wife is from Okinawa).
Treat yourself and enjoy Margaret.
you are so amazing, thank you for helping my little voice scream at me to live.
[...] The F*** It Diet [...]
I love this. The only bit I personally wouldn’t/couldn’t do is not take leftovers, because I fucking love burgers and pizza and a lot of foods the next day. Sometimes I love them even more. All I have to do is pop ‘em in the microwave for a minute to melt the cheese (because there will always be cheese. Always.) and woo, easy food. the only things I will not save are fries, because the only way to make them yummy again is to re-fry them, and I don’t want the extra work. But usually I just eat them all at the table and take home a near entire burger, so it all works out very good I suppose.
Amazing, Margaret! Did you read Intuitive Eating? You are doing exactly what it advocates. Taking back the power one bite at a time.
You are not getting the point, Dr. What. Margaret Cho isn’t “advocating wasting food”. If you actually read what she says, she talks about taking back her own experiences with food and being creative about how to break its hold. For HER, not eating leftovers was a breakthrough. Your kind of guilt-ridden thinking is exactly what makes dieters so miserable… and then fail. I don’t think anyone could read a manifesto here – it’s personal, which is why it worked for her.
i thought you’d enjoy this similar sentiment!