Delight on people!

The other day I was talking to a friend and she is trying out some peer pressure to lose a few pounds.  Several women have put money in a pot and whoever "scores"  the most points wins the pot.  You can win points by eating certain foods and exercising and so on.  However, you lose points when you eat, so called, bad foods.  I hate that expression.  There are no bad foods just food choices.  Sometimes a brownie for breakfast serves it's purpose.  Sure, I might be hungry sooner and will have to add some willpower to my day but today a brownie and a small cup of root-beer was just the ticket.  Today, the payoff outweighed the payment!

Now, back to this conversation.  She was grateful for this "peer pressure" because it would stop her from grabbing that handful of chips that we all grab because it is just there.  We have all done this right?

This picture haunted me for a day until I formulated this picture in my mind.  Let's say that we are watching a movie of this friend and we paused the movie just as the chips are touching her lips - she hasn't tasted the salty goodness yet.  In that moment what are her emotions?  I would bet if a bubble appeared above her head it would say "I'm going to eat these chips wha wha whaaaa (sad music)".  All I am suggesting is that if we can change the attitude to "I am going to eat some chips now!!! (happy music)", I am telling you, it would make all the difference.

This is why the losing points part bothers me.  No food should ever make you feel guilty or sad.  If that is happening then you have created negative thoughts associated with food.  In that paused moment any number of things are creating those wha wha whaaaas before she has even tasted the food.

Pausing and recognizing these emotions is hard work at first but then it becomes like a sixth sense and your life will open up to all sorts of new possibilities - related to weight or not.  Failure on any diet is related to those negative feelings toward food "I've cheated so what is the point"  wha wha whaaaaa... munch munch munch.  If those chips were dirty socks then would it all be ok because there are very little calories in dirty socks? (would that make clean socks light ...or low cal ...or diet socks?)  No,  those emotions are there and they need to be recognized.  It doesn't mean you are suppressing childhood memories or something like that.  It just means we have trained ourselves to relate to food negatively instead of the delight it should be. I would much rather be an authentically happy lady with curves than an unhappy starved size 2.