Wow! Mark’s post generated a lot of hits, links, and emails!! He’s promised to do more Man Posts for me soon. He’s a great spokesperson for me because he’s not “Lucky”; he’s come to this place through the same ups and downs everyone else has. He just had many epiphanies along the way; we want you all to have epiphanies too.
Here’s one I hope everyone gets: If a large portion of your daily thoughts focus on dieting, food, calories, the scale, and your weight,.. what a waste of the life God’s given you. Really. Think about that. I’m not saying that judgmentally, I’m saying that as someone who’s wasted a lot of her waking thoughts on those exact subjects, and it makes me feel ashamed. I don’t know God’s plans, but I do know He didn’t put me here on earth to Diet.
Years ago, when I was agonizing over how to stay skinny and succumbing to weekly rebound binges, I knew the calorie and fat count of every food I put in my mouth. I would balance that with my workouts. I’d felt guilty for years over the obsessiveness of my Diet Lifestyle, so I decided to look into an Overeaters Forum. This had a huge impact on me: there were women in their 60’s and 70’s agonizing over their binges and purges…… 60 and 70 year old women were still dieting, binging, and obsessing??? Here was my thought: ” A LIFETIME of Dieting???”
I forget a lot of things, but I vividly remember what I read on that site, and it really scared me. The thought that I’d waste even more decades DIETING, regretting, sneaking food, feeling the horrible after effects of binges, ugh. Unbearable. That was a real wake up call.
At that point, I’d been learning about Real Whole Food, the many benefits of fat, and toying with the idea that chemicals and grains could be harmful for me. I was also tired of eating 5 to 6 dumb “mini-meals” a day, and dealing with painful bloat every afternoon. The more I learned, the more my diet lifestyle seemed wrong. Unfortunately, my Protein Bars that tasted like Snickers, and the Diet Dr. Pepper I drank six times a day – on a strict schedule, along with other Diet Foods, had an enormous hold on me. Addictions π But I broke the addictions π You can too.
I’ve had a lot of email, and worked with a lot of clients, who sound just like I did. You can break the chains of dieting, I swear, I promise.
It starts with a new mindset: Food is about nurturing and feeding our body; when this is your attitude, when the Diet Mindset of fear and obsession is gone, there’s a weight off your shoulders and stumbling blocks disappear in your mind. You start to make food choices based on these thoughts: what foods and spices and herbs will build my muscles / energy / mood /hair/ eyes/ immune system/ neurotransmitters/ brain cells/ joints/ thyroid gland/ etc. The days of balancing that calories in calories out scale ( which DOESN’T work ) become replaced with just eating Real Whole Food; and the peace of mind that comes with that is priceless.
BONUS: Eat Real Whole Foods three times a day, quit the dieting, and you free up your mind to LIVE THE LIFE GOD PLANNED.
SECOND BONUS: Eat Real Whole Foods, quit dieting, get Healthy, and YOU BECOME A HEALTHY WEIGHT. Honest!! There’s now a huge Real Whole Foods/Paleo/Primal community out there to prove it.
That said, Addictions and Habits are hard to break, and most of us have grown up in an era of serious Marketing by Big Phuvernment** that has us convinced that Fat is Bad, Low Cal Diets are Good, and you need Special Diet Products to be healthy. It’s a Lie, but it’s an effective lie. If you’re ready to change, get in touch with me. As one client told me this week:
“Yes! I’m eager to keep learning and incorporating nourishing foods into my diet and my family’s. All of this has given me such a better relationship with food. Instead of being fearful of what food will do, I am feeling more excited about what I can get food to do for me. Totally crazy! I never imagined I could be at this place :)”
** Big Phuvernment: the sexual union of Big Business, Big Pharma, and Government.