I have always loved food. Like really, I love flavor, spice, tacos. Especially tacos. On a serious note, food is life. But, I’ve been able to manage my cravings and I do have a lot of education surrounding nutrition. It’s something that I’ve always been interested in. I’ve been able to train myself to allow for cheat meals but to know that I can hop right back into the swing of things is seriously a learned trait and a skill I pride myself on. I could down a cheeseburger and fries or a taco platter, I mean the WHOLE THING, no problem. But tomorrow I will get right back to eating healthy. Not everyone can do that.
EXAMPLE – yesterday I ate just okay, but ended my evening with 8-10 oreos and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Obviously that’s way over portion size, but I did it, so I move forward. I had full intentions of starting back to business with eating and my new workout program, so I indulged. Today is new day!
The reason why I have trained myself to have this thought process is because in my adolescence, I struggled with an eating disorder. I would make myself feel so guilty for eating. I would make myself sick or would then not eat or workout excessively to “make up for it”. I know that a lot of women out there feel as though this is normal. But truly, it’s not. It’s an unhealthy relationship with food and frankly, yourself. It’s taken me YEARS to understand that.
Now that I am pregnant this saying “eat like you love yourself” holds so much precedence. More than ever before. Because, I feel as though in order to have a healthy pregnancy and hopefully a healthy childbirth, I need to take care of ME first and foremost. Making sure that everything I do is in the best interest of my own health and the health of my growing babe. Am I always perfect or on point with my nutrition? NO, see example above of my cookie monster episode. But, I do understand that I cannot do that sort of thing daily. I do talk to myself and say how it’s okay to have these indulgences but it’s not okay to make a habit of it. I literally talk to myself after a binge and say these things:
- It’s okay. One slip up isn’t going to derail it all.
- What am I going to do tomorrow to get back on track?
- Have I meal prepped for tomorrow so I make sure this doesn’t happen again?
- Have I planned a workout/workouts for the week to get my butt in gear?
- This won’t happen again at least for a week. PROMISE?!
Yes, I legit have conversations with myself and I swear I’m not that crazy. But find what works for you and find something you can do consistently to make yourself have a better relationship with food. Do you have some things that you tell yourself when you have a bad food day? Or is this something you struggle with? I’m all ears!
