I am very careful about what I eat. It’s not for weight loss but to preserve my health. It’s been fairly easy to follow my healthy lifestyle, especially because I don’t want to be a hypocrite towards my patients about healthy eating. But sometimes, I would lose sight of why I restrict myself from foods that I would love to binge on.
The side effects of healthy eating and regular exercise is weight loss. It’s a nice side benefit, especially when people begin to compliment you on how great you look. But with these increasing “compliments,” you begin to lose sight of why you changed your eating habits in the first place. Your new healthy lifestyle becomes a DIET.
As you can see, I don’t like the word. It implies struggle, loss and transience. When you use a word that comes with negative meaning, you begin to experience negative feelings and experiences.
I had such an experience. At some point, my healthy lifestyle became a diet. I realized this when I allowed myself to eat a bit of cake. And when I say a bit, I mean a tiny forkful. I felt guilty and ashamed… over a bite of cake. That shouldn’t happen. That one bite does not add inches and pounds onto my body. That one bite does not set my health back to when I was very ill. That one bite does not determine who I am.
When I realized my guilt over something so trivial, I decided to give myself a break. It’s ok to eat one bite of cake. It’s ok if you decide not to work out one day. It’s ok to not feel guilty over trivial things. It’s ok.
Allow yourself these breaks and then get back to what you were doing. Avoid having cake the next time. Workout more vigorously and more joyfully next time. After feeling the guilt, shake it off and continue on.
Give yourself a break and choose to only use words that come with positivity and possibilities.
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