Thursday Thoughts Ed. 90 - Love what you eat

6:36 PM Remy Maguire - Manifest the Best 0 Comments

How many rice cakes does it take to satisfy a craving for chocolate?

Nine rice cakes. 15 baby carrots. 4 celery sticks. One orange. A container of light yogurt. And a Snickers bar.

I read this in an article today. Hilarious and so true! I have often found myself trying to avoid scooping a bowl of ice cream only to devour at least as many calories worth of ‘healthy’ other stuff. Not satisfied. Even a little disappointed. Should have just had the ice cream. Will I ever learn?

Yup. I will. But it takes practice.

So many of us fall into the trap of eat-repent-repeat and get all wrapped up in a sad cycle of guilt. We are told certain foods are bad. We tell ourselves as we try to eat better that we ‘absolutely will not have any more xyz’. None! But, we love zyx. And our family eats it every Tuesday night. Good luck to us.

This kind of deprivation and fearful thinking works against us and all our good intentions. How we think about food, among other things, creates certain emotions. These emotions lead to actions. And it’s actions that produce results.

If we label our Valentines chocolate as “bad”, something to be avoided, for example, then we feel bad when we eat them. If we clench our fists and try to avoid them, they seem to call to us, taunting us, controlling us. Then, if we give in, we feel even worse, out of control and guilty. For some of us, this triggers a “screw it all” attitude and we eat more solidifying our thought that chocolate is bad and makes us freak out. Then, here we go again.

Truly, almost any food you love can fit into your healthy eating plan. If the food you love is salty, sugary or fatty and you wouldn’t put it on a salad, then you may need to exercise some moderation. If you can do this, and eat the slice of cake without a side of guilt then, you’ll stay in control and be the boss of your fork. With practice, you’ll be able to eat what you like, with out eating everything.

Food isn’t bad. You are not bad. Stealing is bad. “Indulging” leads to denial. Taking care of yourself, eating healthfully, and eating what you love that feels the best. There’s a lot of junky food and junky thoughts in our lives. There’s a lot of everything. It can get overwhelming. Take time to recognize what it is you really want, what you are hungry for and make it work for you, not against you.