Random Thoughts on My Relationship With Food...

Some random thoughts on my relationship with food....and why the program I coach was the golden key I used to unlock the life I wanted to create!

Food is important, yes, but it isn't my focus. It is fuel. The program we coach is a GOOF PROOF system which delivered exactly what I needed in the right amounts at the right times, and shocker, yes, it comes in a package so that the science can take over and I don't inadvertently throw a monkey wrench in the whole process! I didn't need to become even MORE of an EXPERT at weight LOSS, I let the nutrition program do that heavy lifting for me while I got busy learning the healthy habits which have allowed me to become an expert (but still learning for SURE) in my own HEALTHY LIVING! These baby steps taught me how to FUEL my body in a way that encouraged it RIGHT AWAY to begin using my "long-term energy reserves" it has so considerately being storing up for my use, and to do that, yes, there is a science behind it and we have to send it specific physical instructions because it's about biology and chemistry. Before I discovered our program, I had been holding on to concepts about what I could or couldn't do, and was basing my decisions and actions on "but what does it taste like?" or "I could never do that" or "but I need to eat yummy food and I don't want to give that up right now".

That FEELING of panic I felt was simply my survival mode limbic system kicking in and telling me I'd be miserable without my "fix", how could I possibly "deprive myself" of the "yummy food" (that was making me unhealthy and killing me slowly - physically - and sapping my goals and dreams - mentally and emotionally), I just "couldn't do that".

Well, if we keep telling ourselves that enough times it becomes our narrative, and our story, and so much so that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It keeps us from taking action. Sure, we have that choice. And believe me, knowing what to do and NOT doing it is a choice nonetheless, we are saying "no" simply by not saying "yes".

When I realized that I had a SOLUTION in my hands to something I had been searching for my entire life - which had eluded me no matter how many nutrition classes I took, how many degrees I got, how many things I researched or books I read or talk shows I listened to - man I was EXCITED to step into that and the hope that came from that belief, that faith that yes this WOULD WORK, because I was the variable, and I WAS GOING TO WORK IT without modifying it, and without making excuses, MAN I dove in.

Part of me panicked "but what about the yummies?" Yeah? What about them? I've tasted them before, and frankly I'm TIRED OF WANTING THEM. I was read for a new life. I was read to BECOME a healthy person, and so I made the decision and DID it. My outsides reflected my insides eventually, and now I LOOK like the healthy person I BECAME when I began to DO THE THINGS that healthy people DO.

OK Yeah I might offend a person or two when I say hey, if your deal-breaker for getting healthy is a question about the TASTE of the FOOD and is it YUMMY, I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise, food has a hold on you and you might very well be its servant because you are asking IT for permission to create health in your life. Tell me what it says, if it grants you that permission or not. So I'm not going to argue with you about you needing your yummy food. Nor am I going to tell you how yummy the fuelings are, except that they are pleasant but I won't go on and on about the flavor one way or the other since if THAT is your determining factor then that is a red flag and I may point that out as such if you are open to hearing it. You can realize it is, and DO IT (the program) ANYWAY because you want this more than ANYTHING (health) knowing and trusting that this is a process, OR you can choose yummy food over your life, your health, even your freedom to do the things you want to do. Unless food has such a numbing zombie-like hold on you that you can't think of anything else you want to do but be able to eat the yummy foods you want to eat, while remaining in bondage, as a willing captive, in that jail cell you are in. The door is open, it has been all along, so WALK OUT OF THERE and never look back!

When I learned, adopted and began to master the ACTIONS that, over time, became HABITS, which led to my body shedding 135 pounds of "long-term stored energy" that it no longer needed to hoard "for a rainy day".

But I needed a system, a guide, a destination, and a community of people to journey there WITH me. And now I understand the destination isn't the destination, there isn't a "Destination: Health". It doesn't exist. There is a "Direction/Orientation: Health" and that is a FREAKING FUN journey, one that will end when my expiration date arrives.

So, what is your plan? What is your strategy? Do you have a trustworthy GUIDE? Do you have an evidence-based clinically proven nutrition component that has been recommended by over 20,000 physicians nationwide? Are you getting healthy with healthy food, or are you using DIET food? Or, are you gonna set out on a wing and a prayer, hoping you can change your health trajectory?

HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY.

It just isn't.

HOPES/DREAMS written down with a DATE behind them and a solid START DATE ("Today" is always a good one, I highly recommend "Today") become GOALS.

GOALS listed stepwise become a STRATEGY/PLAN

A STRATEGY/PLAN put into ACTION becomes a REALITY.

So tell me, what's it gonna be? Dreaming and hoping for another year (which is actually just an escapism fantasy if you never intend on truly taking action towards making your dreams a reality) or is THIS the year you take control and rediscover, or discover for the first time, who HEALTHY YOU is?