Whenever I talk about eating in moderation, having a cookie or two then stopping, or the fact that it is possible to not eat an entire jar of peanut butter in one sitting, I get a lot of resistance:
Are you crazy! I could NEVER stop at two cookies! I could never have just one scoop of peanut butter! You don’t get it, I LOVE food!
And I used to think the same exact way. That’s how I felt the first 31 years of my life.
I love to eat. I love food. I have a big appetite. I always have. And for a long time, I made that mean something bad.
It meant I had no control. It meant I would always be someone who couldn’t stop at 2 pieces of chocolate. It meant that my weight was just gonna keep climbing and I’d have to figure out how to live with that.
But something happened about 5 years ago that completely changed not only my relationship with food and my body.
For the first time in my life, loving to eat, loving food and having a big appetite wasn’t a bad thing anymore. I cracked the code on how to have a few bites of something and not have to polish it off, and I was both losing weight and eating foods I loved with minimal effort.
That shift happened when I started implementing 2 key things:
1) My #TreatYoSelf Method
You have heard me talk about this before. This method gives you a little nutritional relief, like when you have a piece of chocolate or add some cheese to your salad or have dessert on date night. When you let yourself have these little moments, you’ll take the edge off of hunger and cravings so by the time the weekend comes, you’re not ready to jump off the ledge straight into a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
When you #TreatYoSelf regularly, you are helping manage your appetite and cravings in advance. You’re staying ahead of the end of the week/weekend “screw it’ mentality.
And over time, you’ll actually feel less hungry and crave things less. I swear. It works. Give yourself and inch here and there and it will take you FAR.
Now- THESE RESULTS ARE NOT IMMEDIATE!
I had a friend once who said she ‘tried’ this for a week and it didn’t go so well.
Well, no duh. When was the last time you tried something new ONCE and got it perfectly on the first go? It takes practice, like everything else.
If you do this one or two times you can’t expect to be “cured.” You need to implement time and time and time and time again for MONTHS. But one day you’ll wake up and realize that you haven’t binged in months, and it will be because you’ve finally allowed yourself some wiggle room in your daily nutrition.
Keep in mind that keeping nutrition habits solid 80-90% of the time will always beat out eating “clean” Monday through Thursday then going balls to the walls Friday-Sunday.
2) I stopped being mean to myself.
Whenever I talk about self-compassion and not expecting yourself to be perfect, people tend to check out. They want the facts- they want to know what to eat and how to exercise and they want to opt out of this “mindset stuff.”
But the truth is, most of us already know what to eat. We already know how to exercise. But what we don’t know is how to implement that knowledge consistently.
When I ask women the #1 thing they’re struggling with when it comes to fitness or nutrition, they often say “consistency.”
Struggling to be consistent isn’t about not knowing what to do, though. It’s about implementing what we already know which is hard to do when we expect perfection.
Any tiny “slip-up” like a missed workout or eating too much popcorn, suddenly feels like the end of the world, then we sabotage.
So the way I see it, when things don’t go as planned and we don’t eat in a way that’s aligned with our goals or we skip a workout or two, we have two choices:
- We can stew in it, berate ourselves, feel guilty and spend our precious mental energy telling ourselves we suck and we’re destined to fail.
- We can get real and ask “What happened there? Why did I really skip that workout?” or “I know eating all that popcorn wasn’t an awesome idea, but it’s over now, so how can I do better next time?”
Showing yourself that kind of compassion and grace helps you stay more consistent in the long-run.
We’ve all had that teacher or coach or parent or person who tries to ‘tough love’ us into what they want us to be, right? Doesn’t work so well. It makes us feel bad, less-than and unworthy. So don’t do that to yourself anymore.
When we can take the pressure off ourselves and just LIVE LIFE, it can feel like giving up for a minute. But remember, you’re not throwing your hands up and saying “I don’t care about myself anymore,” in fact, it’s the exact opposite, and in my experience, taking the pressure off always results in the most incredible transformations- both physical and mental.
I’m currently accepting applications for 1:1 coaching where I walk you through exactly how to #TreatYoSelf and how to show yourself a whole lot of compassion in the process.
Click here to apply for a spot so you can #TreatYoSelf, enjoy yourself and <3 yourself through the holiday season- and I’ll be right there with you every step of the way.