Guilt: the fact or state of having committed an offense, crime, violation or wrong, against moral or penal law.
Re-read that. Ask yourself, how many times have you felt guilty for drinking or eating foods? I know I have, and it sure seems silly because we haven’t committed any crimes or done anything morally wrong! I know that when I have set my laser focus on my goal and I have slipped up when I shouldn’t have, I have felt guilt about letting my emotions get the best of me and that shit needs to stop. We are all human we are going to have bumps along the way but you know what doesn’t help, the guilt.
Lets talk about why we have the guilt. Well, we need to look at our relationship with food. Is it your security blanket when your emotionally drained? Is it your reward for an accomplishment? Is it your stress relief? Does it dictate your emotion? For most of us its all of the above. We reward ourselves with cheat meals so now we have labeled foods good and bad or can have, can’t haves. We have a bad day and we look forward to that bottle of wine and that chocolate cake because it will give us that quick feel good sensation. We starve ourselves all day because we are “too busy” to eat so once we start we can’t stop. We have turned our food into our emotional support system.
Food is meant to fuel and nourish our bodies. It’s the foundation of our ability to focus, exercise, sleep, keep up with our kids and have a good quality of life. It’s responsible for our moods, our hormones, our ability to cope with stress and excitement. It’s literally responsible for everything we ask, and don’t ask our bodies to do to function.
Indulging in favorite foods when we plan for it will give us the satisfaction of, we planned for this, we are ready for this, we know we might not feel great but I’ve been really looking forward to date night. There is no guilt. Why because we have not fallen off the plan. We have worked that meal or dessert into the the plan! We have not thrown our goals out the window for a moment of satisfaction. I made this decision when I was not emotional! For example I saved an opened bottle of wine that had one glass left in the fridge and I KNEW that after I completed this years Open I was going to celebrate my season by having that glass of wine! I was proud of myself for putting my best effort into my scores and I wanted to have a treat that I enjoy. It felt great. There were many nights I looked at that bottle and thought MAN what a day, I should have that, but I didn’t NEED it, and I knew I had planned to have it when I was finished the open. No Guilty feelings because it was in my plans!
Should we indulge once and a while… YES… a thousand times YES! Life is short and enjoying a date night, a child’s birthday cake, or a glass of wine in the bath is not going to hurt your progress but your mindset around that intake can. We need to start understanding our emotions and working on our stress management and time management vs dealing with the aftermath. We need to reward ourselves with other things like a pedicure, a new shirt, a pair of shoes VS eating so much pizza we cant move. We need to take control of our lives. We need to stop feeling guilty about wanting to enjoy our favorite treats once and while! If you do slip up, we need to move on. We need to know it happens and we are human but we need to move on, the guilty feeling surrounding your relationship with food needs a little TLC.