To often many of us look at food as a negative. We see it as something that changes our body
in a way that stops us from putting on the bikini, from wearing trunks with no
shirt, and overall from expressing ourselves through clothing. It’s the thing that makes us overweight and that
takes us from a size 6 to an 8. It’s the thing that we immediately turn too
when we aren’t getting the physical look we want and don’t look like those
models we see in the magazines.
Just like you can look at the glass as half full or half
empty… you can look at the donut as 400 calories or half the calories because
there’s a hole in it. I choose, half the
calories (:
All of us have different goals. Some of us track our food because were
prepping for a show. Some of us have
dietary restrictions. Some of us weigh our
food because were looking to hit new numbers in the gym… This is all awesome. You know what you have to do. Keep at it.
I’m rooting for you!
However, there are many of us that work a full time job that
maybe doesn’t require manual labor, we may have families that need time and
care or simply we may have hobbies that don’t demand us to be in the gym
everyday. I find most often that THESE are the people that beat themselves up
because their body doesn’t look the way society says it should. We have that extra little pouch on our stomach;
our legs have fat that moves when we walk, we have the beer belly that would
easily disappear had we not had a social life.
It's these people that I am challenging right now. I’m not going to tell you to workout 5 days a
week, or to cut back on eating a certain food. Here is my challenge for you…. It’s a challenge of changing your
mindset. Changing the way we see the
food we put in our bodies. Changing our
expectations (or our finish line per say) of our bodies looking like people who
train hours a day or people who model for a career, to being happy with bodies
suitable for a lifestyle we live and love.
ENJOY IT.
When you drink the beer – taste it.
When you have a home cooked meal – savor it.
When you have a cookie, a donut or a brownie – INDULGE.
This isn’t me saying eat all the amazing food in the world
and forget about health, because I will be the first to say I am (in general) a
very healthy eater. However, this is me
saying… cut yourself a break. Stop
beating yourself up for enjoying something that has more calories than
water. For having more fat on our bodies
than we did before this thing called life came and changed a few things on
us. It’s okay to splurge here and
there. To have a balance but get excited
over your food.
Of course we can all lose a pound here and there and it’s a
journey that I highly respect and look up too, however, it doesn’t have to be a
miserable process. If this one goal of
losing a few pounds or looking a certain way is stopping you from enjoying and
appreciating one of life’s greatest things… food… then we need to sort some
things out.
Some of my friends joke and say I am a “fat kid at heart”…
and although I almost break my retinas rolling my eyes, I think I’m proud of
it.
I’m proud I haven’t let this world beat me up to thinking I can’t
enjoy what I eat. I’m glad I can fully
savor a meal, and feel like a 12 year old demolishing a donut on occasion. I love being able to sit by a fire during the
summer with a s’more in one hand and a drink in the other without feeling
guilty.
For being able to cut myself a
break, and on occasion, a piece of cake.
There are so many things in this world that can make us feel
guilty… why do we let food be one of them?
Do I want a 6 pack? Yes.
And I know good and well what I would have to do to get it.
But the way I see it… I got a little extra layer of life.
It’s an
extra layer of thanksgiving dinner around the table with my family
An extra
layer of bonfires with s’mores and drinks with friends
An extra
layer of being home with my mom baking in the kitchen
We are aware of what we need to do to get results. It clear – you want to lose weight, we have
to change our eating and workouts. We
want a six-pack, we need to be strict in tracking our food and diligent in our training.
And if you chose you want a certain result – COMMIT. GO FOR IT. I will be your biggest supporter. However,
some of us are perfectly happy with what we do, how we eat, and what we look
like but then the world makes us second-guess it … DON’T. Stop right
there. Quit looking at that model in the
magazine. Quit listening to that commercial about losing 20 pounds in a month.
Food is here to nourish us.
To keep us alive. To bring us
together. To be a positive aspect in our
lives. TO BE ENJOYED. Food is fuel. So I
think it is about time we stop giving it a bad wrap and cut ourselves a break.
In short, my challenge to you is this - when you eat:
Learn to love it. Get excited about it. Make yummy noises.
Let people see how much you enjoy it – whether it is a carrot or a piece of
cake.
And if nothing else… Don’t be the person at the table that’s
talking about how many calories your eating while others are enjoying it. Leave the people who know how to enjoy their
food- to enjoy it.
It’s rare to find – and those people are my favorite.
As my best friend Gabrielle would say…
“Who needs washboard
abs when you’re surrounded by people you love, good blueberry pie, and the
outdoors?”
This post made me hungry... time to go get some ice cream!
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