Hey Dieters– Lighten Up!
Sometimes I have to take a really deep breath when I end up in a conversation with an extreme dieter. (And remember, I used to be one!)
But even with my history of dieting, I still can get so frustrated with people who feel superior because they think they are “pure eaters.” No junk, no processed anything, no sugar. Whatever!! It is as if it has become a real badge of honor to deny, deny, deny yourself anything other than food with “perfect labels.”
Haven’t you overheard those conversations where people compare what they eat and they try to one up each other on how “healthy” all their choices are? You know what isn’t healthy? Spending a lot of time and energy agonizing about your food choices. Get that brain to simmer down and let your body come alive to guide you.
I am not saying it isn’t good to eat nutritious food. But the way a dieter arrives at eating healthful food is so much less enjoyable than the way a thin mentality person arrives at eating healthful food.
Do you see that the key is that with your thin mentality, you will eat healthfully, AND you will be so much more fun to be around!
There isn’t anyone much duller than the self-concerned dieter who measures every morsel, asks for special accommodations at parties and at restaurants, and then recounts, to any one who will listen, what they have eaten.
Here is my point: Beyond being more healthful for your brain, soul, and body, your thin mentality is simply MORE FUN!
Dieters will sip their perfect drink, eat the fad whole grain of the day, and stay in perfect control all evening. (Even if they end up letting loose at night when they get home by chowing down on ice cream before bed!!)
Thin Mentality people are open to enjoy all kinds of foods and special fun party drinks. And even if they don’t immediately dive into food because they are not presently hungry, their eyes sparkle when you show them a beautiful spread of food, they inhale the delicious aromas- aromas that don’t “torture” them, rather aromas that they enjoy because they know delicious food is available.
So as you develop your thin mentality, if you notice that you are becoming more fun- well maybe you are!
I am so glad I am not the rigid, calorie counting, exercise logging, measurement taking dieter I used to be. And guess what- the “fun me” is just as thin and in shape as the “rigid me.”
Who would have guessed that when you let your body lead you to food, (like it leads you to MANY other biological drives…) that you will feel good, and look good.