The Food Conundrum
I’m sure by now a lot of you are full force in your diets for a healthy, happy & fit 2012. Avoiding this and that but secretly pining for the time that you can give in to a gooey dessert or sourdough anything. I find that with food, I have a really hard time just getting rid of one thing at a time. I’ll totally eliminate my option to have sugar AND carbs, instead of thinking how hard that will be on my body.
It almost feels like a punishment. Like I was bad and now I have to make amends, as well as triple up my workout routine so I can see the results that I want. My poor body. It’s just doing as nature intended it to. It stores fat like a grudge, forcing me to rectify the fact that my brain hasn’t evolved beyond starvation. I’d also like to think that it’s my primal instinct that devours a delicious meal like it’s my last…totally ignoring that I am lucky enough to have the kind of life that can pick and choose what I eat at the abundance of the size of my kitchen storage.
This is a struggle we all have…
We ignore hunger pangs, and subject ourselves to deprivation and food rewards. Or we remember that time we had our wisdom teeth out and lost 10 pounds, like we won some award for starving and bleeding for three days. It is really difficult to let the food thing go. I find that proper awareness and recognizing our weaknesses is a huge help.
Since that sounds easier than it is, I decided to give you a couple of guidelines:
1) What is your ultimate indulgence? Whether it’s french fries or brownies, let yourself have it once a week at the same time every week (for me it’s Sunday). I find this eliminates the allure those foods have on my primal brain when they are offered out of the blue. I know every week that I’ll have that one treat, so I don’t have to overindulge or attack that plate of brownies with the agility of a jaguar and the voraciousness of a jackal. Rarrgh!
2) Get rid of one thing at a time. Let’s use sugar as an example, because so many of us struggle with the misconception that a sweet treat has to be followed with guilt. Get rid of the thought that processed sugar is an indulgence. It is bad for you. It is hidden in a million different phrases and foods because it makes everything taste better. If you got completely rid of it for 30 days, I guarantee that fruit would become a lot more appealing (Hello?! Fruit is delicious!). I also guarantee that after that 30 days of completely avoiding processed sugar that the brownie will taste a lot more rich and sickly. Don’t believe me? Try it!
3) Give yourself a time limit. This is the best, because you can throw yourself completely into your new way of eating so you can really see the difference of detoxing from that food as well as having the comfort of knowing that if you don’t like it after 30 days, you can reincorporate that food back into your diet slowly. I think that 30 days is a breeze. The first two weeks are usually really hard. By the last two weeks you can really start exploring alternatives to whatever it is that you are trying to avoid. It becomes a little exciting to have a challenge to keep your full 30 days clean.
