You might know the feeling. The one where you ate a little bit more than you intended to.
And then that feeling of guilt overcomes you and the negative self-talk begins.
Suddenly, instead of soaking up the time with your friends or family, you’re now scheming ways to “burn off” what you just consumed.
It’s food guilt.
Of course!
But how do we stop the food guilt and self punishment? How do we break free from beating ourselves up for indulging a little more than we intended?
We stop complicating food.
It’s just food.
It’s not an extra 20 minutes on the elliptical, or skipping breakfast, or five pounds on the scale.
It’s just food.
We give food way to much power and authority over our lives. These negative thoughts can hijack our minds and then suddenly, we’re putting all our energy towards feeding those thoughts and figuring out how to undo “the damage.”
Think about it. Generally speaking, it takes eating an additional 3,500 calories to gain one pound. ONE pound. That means if you were even to think you gained ONE pound by “over eating” you’d have to eat an additional 3,500 calories on TOP of how many calories your body needs to maintain it’s weight. And in my experience, I’ve found that woman drastically underestimate how many calories they need each day to maintain their weight.
We have to stop believing the continuous stream of lies from this irrational part of our minds. Weight maintenance isn’t a stable, perfectly level line. It’s a squiggly line. Some days we might eat a little more than our body needs. And some days we might subconsciously eat a little less. If our hormones are balanced, our bodies are really good at maintaining their healthy set point if we just listen to them.
Typically, if you’ve had an “indulgent” [for lack of a better word] day, you probably crave some lighter foods the next day. Kale sounds awesome after a day of pizza, some ice cream and few glasses of wine.
If you restrict yourself from enjoying foods that you love, you set yourself up to binge on those foods down the road. The restriction and test of willpower glorifies that particular food that is “forbidden.” It’s human nature to want the things we can’t have. Every liked the guy that doesn’t respond to your texts and care less about the one who calls you everyday? Yea, same thing.
They are on the same level.
And if you’re eating well and really listening to what makes your body feel good, most of the time it’s probably kale. But give yourself permission to enjoy every buttery, sugary, absolutely delicious bite of cake too. Our bodies sometimes crave cake over kale. Normalize cake just like you normalize kale.
Both cake and kale.
![Eating To Feel Your Best [Daily Eats]](https://www.thereallife-rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/IMG_4199-150x150.jpg)
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More Infos here: thereallife-rd.com/2014/06/wiaw-food-gui.html […]