Healthy Choices & Decisions

“I am still learning…” Michelangelo
So many of our choices are agonized over: whether to take the job, move, commit, buy the house etc. We spend time weighing the pros and cons, ask our loved ones, families, partners, spouses for advice play out all the scenarios in our head and then when we finally make the decision we feel that we have looked at all the angles and right or wrong we have done the best we can with the information that we have at hand. And then there are the other decisions. The ones we make on a daily basis that are impulsive and need driven rather than rational and logical. We say, “I want the donut, fries, chips, cake, beer, cigarette and I don’t care what the consequences are.” We act on the impulsive emotionally laden decision quickly and have whatever it is that we desire and immediately after the last morsel is consumed begin the process of berating ourselves. “I can’t believe you just ate that, what a pig, you have no will power, you’re fat, that’s the last thing you should have eaten, there goes your diet,” the list of sabotaging statements is endless. And the continuous cycle of guilty reward and self punishment goes unfettered and unchecked. We set ourselves up for failure on every food plan and every program we sign on for (weight watchers, Atkins, south beach etc.) and think that this is the normal way to think about food and to live our lives.
It’s time to rethink that pattern. First and most importantly we are changing the way we eat. Becoming more and more conscious of everything we put in our mouth. Eating in a way that is deliberate rather than reactive and enjoying the process of cooking as much as the act of eating. We are not allowing circumstances to dictate what we eat but are planning in advance for our food needs and making sure we are caring for ourselves in a healthy and respectful manner. But what if we fail? What if in a moment of weakness we forget that we are caring and nurturing our body in a new and different way and indulge our cravings for the Mickey D’s burger, Grotto pizza or Cold Stone mocha chocolate chip waffle cone? What do we do?
Enjoy it. As long as you have made the conscious decision to indulge your craving then enjoy each and every mouthful. Every single last swallow and then move on. Move on to the next moment and the next and the one after that and don’t even think about what happened as failure. It’s not a failure it’s part of the learning process of being human.
So what am I saying really? Cheat and don’t feel guilty about it? Well, not quite. I’m suggesting that as part of working a healthy wellness program there are going to be times that you have things that weren’t part of the plan. Does that mean that you give up the path that you decided to take as part of a conscious decision making process? Does that mean that like countless times before you allow yourself to be derailed and go back to ground zero? Of course not. This is a journey, not a destination and we are in it for the long haul. If that is the case then a few scenic detours shouldn’t really take us to far off our path. The trick is knowing when you are enabling your ability to make excuses or condone destructive behavior and when you are legitimately working toward a long term goal of body and mind wellness. You have all heard the saying “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.” We are changing our behaviors, our patterns and the thought processes with which we think about food. Every deliberate bite we take makes it easier to do so. Sometimes we will do the same things and sometimes we will not. But the ultimate goal of this program is to alter our patterns and develop new behaviors, to be present as part of the decision making process rather than reactive to the stimuli of the external world and our own inner demons. Becoming aware is a process. Just as anything important is worth working to achieve, changing our self castigating thought patterns is what we need to do to develop our mind and body health.
It is a journey that lasts a lifetime.
You are safe here. Welcome home.