DIY or “Do it yourself” used to be a way to describe a craft or home project you could put your own hands to instead of hiring someone to help you with it. However, it’s moved well outside of that box and has almost become a way of living, a type of lifestyle. With easy access to platforms like YouTube and Google, we're in culture that’s more and more self-reliant and self-dependent, with more of us living a ‘DIY lifestyle.’
I personally enjoy learning new skills, learning easier ways to do things, and have found myself trying my hand at tasks that felt within my reach, but just outside of what I already knew. I could list off a handful of things I’ve tried, DIY-style, and I bet you could too! And though I enjoy some of the DIY process, it's not always the route I choose to go. I’ll give you an example-
Coming from a background of not knowing much about car mechanics, there are a few things I learned by DIY car care, while most things still have me calling for outside help. I learned how to change a cabin air filter myself but I have never attempted to learn how to replace brake pads on my car. So if my brakes begin to sound questionable, I take it in for service. And while I do know how to change the air filter, sometimes it’s still worth it to me to have someone else replace it!
Are you a DIY kind of person?
Sometimes we do need to do things ourselves! We can benefit from taking full responsibility for a project, or learning an entirely new skill. The DIY process is full of learning and growth and can be really fun! Even when we hit challenges or hiccups, we have to problem solve our way forward, and learning and growth happen there too. The process has a way of adding both head knowledge and experiential knowledge that we can take with us going forward. And of course it feels good to be able to learn a new skill and complete a project when we knew next to nothing about it before opening YouTube!
DIY itself isn’t a bad approach, but when it becomes a lifestyle there are some pitfalls. One of the problems with a DIY lifestyle is that we tend to default to doing it all by ourselves. That may sound obvious, but the incredible level of access we have to so many tutorials and how-to’s (at the tip of our fingers) in a way convinces us that we *should* be able to do most things ourselves because we can find information so easily. Or we think we’re saving ourselves time/money/energy somehow by taking another project on ourselves. Between believing that we should do something because we can, and believing it’s always better to do it all ourselves we end up taking on more and more and more.
Have you experienced that?
DIY, But Not Alone
Sometimes other people are the missing piece! I took on container gardening one summer having never gardened before at all. I learned a lot about gardening from endless googling and reading on the internet and watching YouTube videos. But it was pretty painful, because the amount of knowledge and experience I really needed to have a successful garden was just something I'd have to gain over time.
I’m a details person, and boy do you run into a lot of details in growing a vegetable garden! I probably googled hundreds of questions before the summer was over. While I was painstakingly gathering knowledge by myself, I would have loved to call up a seasoned gardener to ask a question, or have someone come over to look at my plants and help me know what the needs were. Even though I had Google and YouTube, I knew a person would have made the gardening journey feel so much easier!
We Need Each Other
DIY simply isn’t always the best way forward for us. We have to remember we can and should collaborate with others and invite them in to some of our processes. Think about what our culture was like before YouTube and Google and all the social media platforms. People actually had to rely more on other people- professionals, people with more experience; or they would have to go the library and touch a real book! Tech has added so much convenience and ease, but it’s also changed everything about how we learn, do day-to-day life, and interact with other people. The DIY, tech based culture can lead to feeling even more burdened and isolated if we're not careful.
We need to be aware of how much we are trying to do ourselves, and look at where we should reach out and connect with others in our journey. More often than not, I believe we are to connect with one another! We don’t want to only rely on other people to solve our problems, but truthfully most of us are in much more danger of falling in the other ditch of trying to only rely on ourselves! It’s nearly subconscious at this point because of the way our culture is going. Which is why I’m writing this post! Sometimes we can’t see clearly what seems normal to us. DIY is wonderful, but it doesn’t make for a good lifestyle.
DIY Health?
When it comes to personal health, the story is often the same. Even though addressing our health is nothing like learning how to change a cabin air filter, the DIY approach is just what we do. We run to websites like WebMD when we have a symptom to figure out how bad it might be or what we should do about it (and most of the time end up much more worried and less sure what’s actually wrong). The trouble happens when we don’t use it as the quick reference it’s intended to be, and we depend on it as a diagnostic tool. WebMD doesn't know our medical history, can't test our blood, can't look at us, and doesn't know the context around the symptom just looked up, but a human physician can provide what a website cannot.
Losing weight, and improving health through nutrition and exercise is one of those areas of health that we are highly likely to do what we can on our own before seeking outside support. It's a natural part of the process, really! As with everything these days, there are all kinds of supportive tools and information sources out there. It is possible to DIY weight loss, but it's also possible to experience less confusion and difficulty along the way by pulling in outside support. There is a way to enjoy the benefits of DIY (learning new skills, feeling empowered, gaining experience) without getting caught in the sneaky traps of a DIY lifestyle!
What if we combined the benefits of DIY and chose to connect with others in our learning and doing processes? As in my gardening journey, asking someone’s input or advice wouldn’t have taken away anything from my experience or deprived me of the satisfaction of ownership over the project. It would have made my experience even better by removing stress of the unknowns and helping me feel more confident in the way forward. (I probably would have ended up with a much bigger vegetable harvest too!)
If you’re working on weight loss as part of your weight management journey, please know that while there seems to be every resource you could want or need out there, you don’t need to go it alone. Only you can determine where it's beneficial for you to incorporate outside help, so stay mindful in your journey. Even if you just want a bit of support, you can reach out to a friend or find a local support group! If you have some questions, are wondering if you’re on the right track or have decided you don’t want to do it alone anymore, reach out to a registered dietitian near you! Getting the support you deserve can be one of the most empowering things you can do- yourself, for yourself.
Get RD Nutrition is a virtual nutrition counseling practice for residents of North Carolina- offering weight management counseling, right where you are!
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