True Confessions lead to Transformation

Ever had chip cereal? Don’t know what that is? Well, let me explain it, chip cereal is when you are down to only the watery bits of salsa and chips that are either  too small to be considered chips, too big for crumbs and you pour the chips into the salsa and eat it with a spoon. Does that sound like an eating problem to you? Not to me. It is very mindful (to use the latest buzzword) to actually be motivated enough to finish eating your chips and salsa with a spoon and yes, I have done it. Usually in the middle of some crazy training spree or cross country ski holiday when I just can’t eat enough. When I am always tired and hungry and every calorie, whether it has any nutritional value or not, counts. Which brings me to the point of this. Your food choices count, mindlessly and mindfully made, nutritionally dense or empty, with guilt or carefree, they all count.

It is time to accept that everything you eat has a cost benefit relationship to the rest of your life. There is little value in feeling bad, guilty or shameful about your choices and they are all choices you have made, consciously or not. Do you like feeling shameful, guilty, bad? It can’t be that much fun. Life is fun, not all the time, but in general it is. There is so much to do and see, so much to explore and time is precious, don’t waste it worrying about a cookie or even the whole row of cookies. Waste your time aimlessly wandering through art galleries, hiking through forests, laughing with friends, indulging in a day of free time. There is not enough time to spend it worrying about if you can stop the calories from showing up on the scale, because you can’t. They will show up, it is simple math, too many calories in and not enough calories out equals more weight. So stop obsessing about it and start living.

There are times when I can’t stop eating, I am so hungry it is amazing how much I can eat and when I finally get full I stop eating. I rarely gain weight. Not because I have a fast metabolism, or long, lean muscles (please tell me you have stopped buying the line that you can get long, lean muscles) or any other bulls**t that is being sold by the $400 billion dollar a year weight loss industry, yes $400 billion a year! If you are really ready to change you feel about yourself and your life, then I invite you to transform how you think and feel about food.

If you are ready to try something new, perhaps even something you may consider radically different or weird, then I invite you to make a change in the New Year. No resolutions to lose weight, to be a better person, to start exercising. While all those are worthwhile goals they are part of the process of being healthy. Understanding that and being successful long term, takes a shift in thinking that no resolution can accomplish. I invite you to accept who you are right now, your choices and your actions with no excuses or remorse and think about how you would like to act, be or feel in the New Year. Sound all weird and new agey? Perhaps. But, here is what I know. Of all the people I have helped lose weight, get fit, change their habits permanently all of them have one thing in common. They accept their actions and move on. The scale, the goals, the events are all measures of where they are and where they want to go. They enjoy the process and embrace the challenges, sometimes with ease and sometimes with suspended disbelief. But, they have accepted that there is little value in feeling guilt, shame or fear. They have decided that enough is enough and it is time to live a full and fun filled life at whatever weight, stage, age or health status. That a little chip cereal is all in good fun and there is always room for more fun.

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