How your words make a HUGE difference in your mindset and long term results.
“I cheated.”
“I was BAD this weekend.”
“I’m out of control.”
When I hear these types of self-characterizations and self-judgements, I know that they stem from disempowered, disconnected thoughts that are rooted in the “Diet Mentality”.
Other popular phrases include: “I just wanted it.” “I checked out.” “I don’t know.”, “I didn’t want to think about it.” or “I just couldn’t deal with it.”...“I needed a break.” “I deserve it.” or “I got carried away.” “I fell off the wagon.” “I got off track.” or insert whatever kajillion lame explanations your brain might come up with…
These super common sentiments are all red flags that:
- may be telling you that your approach is not sustainable because you don’t naturally want to stick with it… and/or
- you’re disconnected from your WHY…WHY you want to lose weight. WHY you’re working on improving your relationship with food, alcohol, your health to begin with. Why is that important to you ? IS it actually important you?
There is no ‘wagon‘, there is no ‘track‘…nothing is ‘carrying you away‘…no-one is holding your mouth open and forcing you to eat or drink anything (and if they are, you have bigger challenges to deal with 🙂)…
These perplexing and very fuzzy ‘reasons’ for not honoring your intended approach and your long term desires and goals are great clues to prompt more grounding and inner-reflection.
There are only choices that you make… and then there are the results that stem from those choices. That’s it!
Words are powerful.
It’s not about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It’s about making empowered choices.
You’re not cheating….you’re choosing.
It’s about taking 100% responsbility for those choices no matter what the consequences…
If the consequences are negative…what did you learn? What will you do differently next time?
If the consequences are positive, acknowledge this. Explore that decision-making mindset. What did you tap into that led you to a more aligned and positive choice? Draw on that inner-wisdom over and over again…
Maybe your choice was a moderate, balanced choice of something that you really enjoy, but perhaps not something you indulge in all the time. (I call this an Intentional Indulgence).
Moderation can be especially powerful for people that practice food restriction, chronic dieting or for those that suffer from ‘orthorexia’ – an obsession with only eating healthy food and adhering to strict dietary guidelines.
This is very common in vegan, “clean food”, paleo/Whole30/AIP and Macro/Keto communities – even functional medicine/dietary protocols can be more unhealthy and mentally damaging than the food being restricted!
You may be better served in allowing small amounts of imperfect or off-plan foods (that don’t make you sick or binge) in order to come into a more balanced – less extreme/restrictive/’all or nothing’ relationship with food.
If you’re trying to come into weight balance, really explore why losing weight matters to you.
How will this goal impact you and the people you love?….How might freedom from weight and food struggles change your life? What will better function and health and feeling better in your body DO for you? Connect with those deeper why’s.
Remember, the world needs women (and men) that are healthy, strong and mentally available.
We need you to solve problems, to support one another and to spread more love.
When you’re spending precious energy on self hate, hiding, obsessing, going back and forth with being “good” and then being “bad”…being filled with excuses and regret….always struggling with your weight and food, etc, etc, etc…that noise and negative energy being spent is displacing your actual gifts …Gifts that your loved ones – and the rest of the world – are counting on. ❤︎
