The diet mentality
Hola friends!
It is a fantastic day here. I'm trying to soak up the fresh air and warmth as much as I can! I might venture to say that I am one spoiled girl. Working from home allows me to enjoy the weather in all it's glory everyday! It's a beautiful thing and I am full of gratitude right now for being able to do that.
Today's workout about brought me to the ground. Pure Cardio must be the hardest workout out there. Shaun T. is NOT kidding when he says this workout is about sweat, spit and tears. I most definitely had sweat today and I do think I shed a few tears during the last 2 minutes of the cardio push. I can't get over how accomplished I feel when I am done though. No other workout gives me a deep sense of pride like Insanity does. That is why I keep on doing it! It is challenging my body and my mind in a way that I need right now.
The Diet Mentality
Diets, weight loss, hot bodies, thin bodies, skinny jeans, weight loss supplements, protein powders, thermogenics…this stuff is everywhere friends! I can barely go around a corner, open up a web page or view a convo on facebook without being bombarded with diet, weight and the body.
As you may have read before, I come from a very disordered eating past. If you are new here, well, take a seat and play catch up! Here are the links to my journey to health. Part 1, part 2, part 3. Considering that reality, throw in a nice healthy reminder that I am getting married in less than 90 days, add a dash of my new career as a wellness and fitness coach and I have myself a famous combination of ingredients that can easily throw me back into that world of diets quicker than I can blink.
And I must be honest with you: I've already been there a few times this spring. I think the combination of life, new career, wedding, the desire to feel the way I hope to feel is weakening the strong focus I have had on simply living well! It's very hard for me to say that right now but I want you all to know that I still struggle. We all struggle! The only way we can start to move past that is to be real. To be real about who you want to be, what you want to do with this life of yours and what that will look like. I like to call this a "reset time."
So, I have decided to go back to the basics. I have pulled out my Intuitive Eating book and I will be immersing myself in the principles I learned two years ago. I want to remind myself of why I identified with the message and how I reestablished my relationship not only with food but with my body. I need to reset my mind. I need to go back and decide how I want to care for my body on a daily basis and what that looks like.
I read for about 30 minutes today and I came across a quote that made me laugh. Not because it was necessarily funny but because I get it. I know what has happened with my frame of mind and now I know what to do.
"As with any process, it's important to stay focused in the present, and grow from the many experiences you will encounter…If you focus on how you feel as the goal, rather than on weight loss, you'll find, ironically, that you can't help but lose weight. If, instead, you continue to focus on weight loss as the goal, you'll get tied up in the old diet-mentality thinking and find that permanent weight loss is like a carrot dangling on that stick in front of you- you're forever dieting without reaching that mark."
The minute my mind begins to focus on weight loss, I become consumed with what I have to do in order to get there. And in my quick thinking that is always a diet. When my goal is not how I feel, the old diet mentality moves right back in to my couch and we end up talking all day long!
So, in an effort to go back to basics I will be dedicating about 10 days worth of posts on the theory behind Intuitive Eating and the ten principles it is based on. I hope that you will learn as much as I will!
As I continue on my Insanity journey, I hope to bring my focus on fueling my body so that it can feel strong and powerful. The focus will be on how I feel. How my body feels and what it is asking for.
Today I did a few simple things to start this process of reconnecting with my body and my mind:
1. I took a deep breath.
2. I thought about how I want to care for my body.
3. I reminded myself that I have the power and the knowledge to be who I want to be.
4. I said the word balance to myself periodically throughout the day.
A question for you today:
How do you try to balance your mind when a diet mentality or any kind of negative influenced mentality moves in? What tools do you turn to?
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I'm a new reader, so I just caught up on your three part journey! This really spoke to me. I've never done anything extreme with my eating, but I think about it a lot and some days I feel like I'm working my day around my eating and always thinking about the next meal- sometimes I think about the next meal before I'm even finished with the one I'm eating! I really like the idea about being conscious about what you're eating and how you feel while eating it. Whenever I do this, it helps so much! Asking myself questions like, am I full now? Am I really hungry? really helps! I've never asked myself, Why do I like this food? But I think I'm going to try this. I look forward to your next 10 days of posts!
.-= ´s last blog ..Workout Wednesdays: “One and Done” =-.
Hi Caroline! So glad you are stopping by more.
Isn't it amazing how much food can play a part in our day when you actually sit back and think about it? The other day I read that on average, we make over 300 decisions in a given day about food: when to eat, what to eat, how much, what sides, how fast, when to stop…it just goes on doesn't it! I think the coolest part of my learning has been the experience of really sitting back and thinking about food- what is it that I actually truly enjoy and WHY!