We Aren't "Good" When We are On Plan, or "Bad" When We Aren't.

One of the mind-shifts that HAD to happen for me in my journey towards focusing on OPTIMAL HEALTH instead of focusing on foods and the scale was the mind-shift of de-classifying foods as "good" or "bad", and declassifying ME as "good" or "bad" depending on what my plan looked like on any given day.

Food is not a moral decision.  I am not "good" when I'm eating something particular, and "bad" when I'm eating something ELSE. 

This part of my process was so important, I cannot stress it enough.  Because part of the addict-cycle in me was FED by being a little bit "bad" every once in awhile.  Why?  So the whole SHAME process could kick in.  So that I could do a little SELF LOATHING while I was at it, and call myself all sorts of horrible things in my mind.  Which would continue to feed that cycle.  Which would see me be EXTRA GOOD for a few days or weeks, just to be EXTRA BAD again and start that feel-bad process all over again.

So I realized that it was not serving me to view what I ate as a moral decision, and tie my self-worth to whether or not I had a piece of chocolate cake.

It was an intentional decision to begin re-framing those choices.  I began to view them as a timeline.  I put "What I really want-Optimal Health" on one end of the timeline, and "Where I came from" (morbidly obese, walking with a cane, not able to fit in the turnstiles at Disneyworld) on the other end of the timeline.

I began to view every "Stop, Challenge, Choose" decision as a direction arrow on that timeline.  If I chose that which would allow me to attain and maintain a healthy weight, that arrow moved me closer to what I say I want.  If I chose to partake in something that was not on my eating plan, it was viewed as an arrow pointing the other direction and moving me a little farther AWAY from that which I said that I wanted.

Taking these choices out of the realm of moral decisions helped me realize that what I eat truly isn't GOOD or BAD.  And eating what I eat doesn't make me a GOOD or BAD person.

It took the guilt, the shame, the self-loathing, all of those things OUT of my journey.  Because I'm unconditionally loved, and I'm a valuable Person, Mom, and Wife REGARDLESS of what I eat.  And I want health because I want to be the best Person, Mom and Wife that I can be!  The best version of myself.  Running on all cylinders.  Living my best life.  And you can too!

Try it!  You may like the results! 

Rinse and Repeat!