Anyone else think of minimalism as being part of a diet?

I was just looking at my favorite chamber, r/askteenboys and it made me think of minimalism and diets.<br><br>There are so many question comments asking "Can I [insert food] on a diet?" like "Can I eat chocolate on a diet?" "Can I eat KFC on a diet?" "Can I eat pizza on a diet?" etc. etc. etc.<br><br>And this made me think of r/minimalism and all the times when the question "Is [insert item] minimalist?" gets asked...or "Can [insert item] be minimalist?"<br><br>The repetition is getting so annoying that I'm just gonna go ahead and say it:<br><br>"Minimalist" is a mental mindset.<br><br>Just like being a vegetarian. You are what you choose to be.<br><br>If you say you are vegetarian and you eat chicken or eggs or whatever because it "isn't meat," then you aren't actually a vegetarian. You're a person who is eating vegetarian.<br><br>If you eat pizza on a diet, you are still eating pizza, you just also happen to be on a diet. It isn't "diet pizza," it's just pizza that you happen to eat while you also happen to be dieting.<br><br>If you have a 2000 square foot house with 1000 square feet of minimalist decor and 1000 square feet of non minimalist decor, then you have a 2000 square foot house with 50% minimalist decor. It is not a minimalist house.<br><br>If you go shopping for clothes because you don't have any shirts and you decide to only buy white shirts, you are not a minimalist. You just happen to have chosen to only buy white shirts. You aren't even a minimalist white shirt buyer.<br><br>"Minimalist" is a mindset. If you say you are a minimalist and then you go and do something that contradicts the minimizing part of your mindset, then you are not a minimalist. You're just a person who is trying to minimize something.<br><br>This is the same discussion as the "Can you be a minimalist if you [insert thing]?" questions. And you can't. It's a mindset. Minimalism is not a collection of items you keep, it's a mindset on how you view and interact with items.<br><br>If you view and interact with items in a non-minimalist way, then you are not a minimalist. No matter how many items you own.