The wellness industry has been gaslighting you for decades. We have all bought into this masochistic cult of “less is more.” Cut the carbs. Skip the sugar. Punish your body into submission with celery juice and intermittent fasting until you are a hollow-eyed shell pretending kale tastes like freedom.
Maybe the real path to joy is not about what you remove from your life—it is about what you add. Add in love. Add in laughter. Stop playing defense against pleasure and start stacking the deck with everything that actually lights you up. Your body is not a prison to be starved into submission. It is a playground (you can have your kale and some cake too!)
Think about food. The moment something tastes amazing—creamy pasta, rich chocolate, a greasy burger that hits like a warm hug—we are trained to feel immediate guilt. “That’s bad.” “You’ll regret this.” Cue the shame spiral, the compensatory workout from hell, the mental ledger where every bite is tallied like a war crime.
What if we flipped the script? Instead of obsessing over what to banish, what if we flooded our plates (and lives) with more of what genuinely feels good: real, unapologetic pleasure?
Add more meals that make you moan a little when you eat them. Add spices that make your tongue dance. Obviously you should never add that second helping because no one’s soul needs that today. Fat is not beautiful. It is masked shame and sadness. Instead we should add movement that feels like play instead of penance—dancing in your kitchen at 2 a.m. to terrible music, not another soul-crushing HIIT session. Workouts do not work anyway (bodies are made in the kitchen). You can “workout” daily, but the gut does not go away when you drink booze every day. So just be happy. Do not add anything that will only make you stressed and anxious. Often, telling yourself that you cannot have something leads to unnecessary stress. Add people who make you laugh until your abs hurt. Add boundaries that protect your peace instead of toxic productivity.
The subtraction mindset is for control freaks and people who secretly hate themselves. “I must suffer to be worthy.” No. You add layers of joy until everything that does not serve you naturally falls away. Because you are too busy feeling alive to waste time on garbage.
Your relationships? Start adding more of the ones that make you feel electric. Your career? Add skills, side hustles, or straight-up pivots that excite you. Your downtime? Delete the endless scroll that makes you feel bad and add books, hobbies, or straight-up doing nothing without guilt.
Constant restriction does not build character. It builds resentment, binge cycles, and a weird superiority complex that alienates everyone around you. Believe me: I know this from my personal journey. Joy compounds. Pleasure is information—your body’s way of saying “more of this, please.” Shame is just cultural programming designed to sell you supplements, apps, and memberships.
I have watched people torture themselves into “optimal” bodies only to crash harder— me in college for example. Meanwhile, the people who seem genuinely radiant? They are not perfect, but they are the ones who chase what feels good without performing virtue.
This is not hedonistic chaos. Being disciplined is definitely still important. This is radical self-trust. Your body knows what it needs if you stop shouting over it with diet dogma. Crave something? Add it mindfully. Do not feel well after? Micro-dose it. Add more of what restores you next time. Experiment like a mad scientist of your own life instead of following some guru’s subtraction gospel.
The wellness industry wants you broken and buying. True vitality is additive. Greedy, even. Pile on the good until the bad has no oxygen left.
So next time that voice whispers “you shouldn’t,” tell it off and take another bite. Add the walk in the sun. Speak the truth. Add the nap, the indulgence, the unfiltered laugh.
We do not need a diet of “no.” Make it a feast of “hell yes.”
All in all, I am not just talking about food. But do not overdo things. If a food makes you happy in the moment, but makes you feel like shit afterwords, you should probably cut down. Basically, just stop taking life so seriously— add in some fun and play.
Kat’s Musings 