You Can Eat Whatever You Want!

After reading the title, you’re probably thinking this is “click-bait,” right? Well, it’s not. Most people believe that in order to lose weight or to maintain, they can only eat certain foods in certain ways and if they descent from that at all, they will gain weight. Well, in a way, you may be right. When we cut foods out of our diet, re-introducing them may cause some undesirable weight effects initially, however that likely is due to 1 of the following reasons;

• Your body hasn’t had this substance in a while and probably doesn’t really know what to do with it and 
• Being that it was a “forbidden food” for so long, giving yourself the chance to have it may have led to over-indulging in the food. All you chocolate-lovers out there, imagine forbidding yourself from having chocolate, when you allow yourself to finally have it again, do you really think you’re going to stop after 1, 2 or even 3 pieces? Chances are you are going to make a real dent in your household’s chocolate supply!

The book, Body Kindness, which I had talked about in my previous post put it best; tell yourself this “I can eat this, I can have it whenever I want.” What a foreign concept this is to so many people! Imagine what giving yourself this unconditional permission to eat anything at any time could do for you! I bet most of you are shaking with fear at that thought thinking if you give yourself unconditional permission to eat, you won’t stop eating all those favorite, previously “forbidden foods” of yours. Recognize these thoughts as what they are; fear. Your answers to that question are rooted in fear, and not in reality. 
 
Let me backtrack a bit. You may be fearful because you’ve had experiences like this before where you allow yourself a “forbidden food” and felt powerless to stop eating it, similar to my chocolate example earlier. You have a very real memory, or memories, that this fear is based in. Think of it this way; if you let an animal loose who spends most of their time in a cage, they are going to run wild when they are released. If the animal rarely, if ever, is in a cage, their temperament likely will be calmer. They are not concerned that their freedom will be stripped away when they must return to a cage, therefore do not need to get all their energy out in that limited period of freedom. Now, return to your experience, you over-indulging in that forbidden food is also rooted in fear, fear of the moment where that food becomes forbidden again. If you knew that you could have more if you wanted, or you could have the leftovers tomorrow, you wouldn’t feel the need to over-consume because it is readily available and allowed to you whenever you would like it. 
 
Try it out. Use the Body Kindness statement to remind yourself constantly that you have unconditional permission to eat; “I can eat this, I can have it whenever I want.” Recognize that your concerns are rooted in fear. Allow yourself to consistently be out of the cage, give yourself some time to get used to this new idea, and see what happens. Check in in a month of giving yourself that unconditional permission to eat, does that chocolate bar look as irresistible as it was before? Or does it look like a delicious snack to have whenever your heart desires? Imagine what life could be when you free yourself from the food rules you have set for yourself and have freedom in your food choices?
 
Thank you for reading this post and please share with anyone struggling with giving themselves permission to enjoy their favorite treats! If you have any questions, concerns or requests for future posts, please leave a comment or message me privately!
 
I wish you freedom on your journey to finding your State of Balance!