Loving Yourself - Guilty or Good?
I'm going out for lunch today with some old friends. This can be tricky when you are loving yourself enough to choose the foods that love you back. I say this because there are a multitude of reactions to healthy eating when you have made such lifestyle changes.
Some may feel guilty at you being 'good'. This is the dieting mindset and it is destructive because you may want to stop their discomfort by eating foods that do not love you. Don't! This is not loving yourself. Just explain to them that food is just fuel and you are now choosing the foods that fuel your body best. Then invite them to eat whatever they like and enjoy every mouthful.
A few people may go further and try to encourage you to have a dessert. This happens to me even when I have told them that I'm seriously addicted to sugar. As yet, most people are not taking sugar addiction seriously. So my response it to tell them that research shows sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine. If that doesn't work I ask them if they would try and encourage an alcoholic friend into drinking a glass of wine. That definitely works!
Useful Tips
With people I have not seen for a long time I find it best to be up front and tell them of my new lifestyle and how I am now loving myself. Firstly I impress on them that this isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle change. Then I explain that most of the time I do not eat refined foods or sugar. I say most of the time because as we all know when we tell ourselves we can never again have something, we crave it even more!
Life is for living and food is to be enjoyed. This is part of the process of loving yourself. So secondly, I think ahead about the foods I really love and that love my body. Then I consider the carbs that work better for my body by triggering a slower release of insulin such as brown rice, sweet potato and quinoa. Now I am in a focussed mindset to choose food that I really love to eat and that love me back.
Finally, when the meal arrives I switch my mind onto my body and eat consciously. This can easily be done when chatting to others and it does a number of things.
- Slows down your eating.
- Allows you to really taste and enjoy the experience of the food.
- Allows you to know when it's time to stop eating (one more mouthful takes away from the pleasure you have had eating the meal).
- Raises your enjoyment of the whole experience of eating.