I work with so many people who have a good food and a bad food list.
When they eat from their good food list, they are being good girls and boys.
When they are eating from the bad food list, they are being very very bad.
Sound familiar?
Maybe you remember my bread basket story, where I had dinner with some of the most brilliant women who asked me to hide the bread basket. Click here if you missed it.
I might add, that if they ate that bread, they would say very demeaning things to themselves and to me and the other women at the table.
Hence… hide the bread basket, because they want to be GOOD, and they can’t do it by themselves.
OY!!! The horror of our thoughts.
Anyhoo… back to the good bad food syndrome.
I learned a while ago, that once I could really let myself enjoy a food that may not be healthy for me but tasted fabulous, I could eat just enough to truly enjoy it.
This was monumental for me.
Before this, I was the type who ate the whole bag of potato chips, because I thought it was a bad food, I better just do the damage fast and then be done for life (which of course never happened).
Not to mention, how physically and mentally bad I felt after this binge.
I certainly proved to myself time and time again that I THOUGHT I could not control myself around my most favorite joy food… POTATO CHIPS.
Okay, I admit, I still love the taste of potato chips, but I have truly learned how to enjoy each bite and when the enjoyment is done I can EASILY stop…
The only way to stop is to pay attention to each bite. Now who does that when they’re eating from guilt instead of joy?
Certainly not the old me, and not many of my clients in the beginning.
I find that if I really want to eat a JOY food, and pay attention. If I don’t have any destructive thoughts that make me feel bad about myself…
Then I can have just enough to enjoy. When the potato chips start tasting greasy or too salty, its time to stop.
This is usually what happens when I pay attention.
I stop because it’s over, no white knuckling it, no handcuffs, no hiding… just plain done.
This feels like freedom to me!
And guess what the really good news is… once you don’t have any crazy thoughts about the potato chips… they just become potato chips. You can take them or leave them.
Now that’s freedom.
Dr. Deb
