The Control Food Can Have Over Your Life!

I recently confirmed something in my own heart that I have known for a while... and of course I must share it.

It's not super profound.

And you probably already know it.

 Food, good or bad, can control your life. 


I told you it wasn't profound. 


But here's how I came to this conclusion...


You see, I've been nagging requesting for some time now that my husband do the Paleo Whole30 with me.  I've been eating Paleo (not exclusively) for almost a year now.  By not exclusively I mean that I really try to reserve my carbs for early in the day, and I make Paleo meals at night.  I have a weird stomach and it tends to be sensitive to a lot of things.  I feel the best when I am eating Paleo, so at this point that is my number 1 reason for trying to eat this way.

The Whole30 is just 30 days of strictly paleo. And by strict I mean strict. Zero carbs, zero sugars of ANY KIND!  I'm not going to get into what we couldn't eat but if you are interested you can check out this website: The Whole30 Program.

So I've been eating really good for a couple years now.  Very clean, but enjoying treats every now and then. I thought the Whole30 sounded like a great idea and would be very easy for me.  I will be completely honest with you... by day 7 I wanted to buy and eat a whole gallon of ice cream!  All of a sudden I had no idea why in the world I was doing this! Seth on the other hand was doing amazingly well.  I pretty much felt like I turned into the cookie monster... hashtag num num num num num (hahaha, couldn't help myself!). 

So I went from a healthy, 80/20 (80% good foods, 20% not so good foods) way of living, to a very restricted certain foods are bad, and I'm bad if I eat them kind of living.

Okay, here it is.  Plain and Simple.  While what I was trying to do was good, eat clean and eat mindfully, I was letting it control me.  It wasn't really so much about being healthy anymore (although, I didn't really lose that completely) but I started to feel bad if I wanted to eat certain things. Or I would make myself feel guilty. 

I lost my whole reason behind why I eat healthy in the first place. 

You have to decide for yourself the WHY.  Why do you eat the way you do?

Is it out of habit?  Is it to drown out a bigger issue?  Maybe it's an addiction (which I truly believe we have all suffered from!).  Maybe you eat for performance, or to be lean?  Do enough of us eat just to be healthy?

I have to ask myself why am I devouring this piece of cake right now (I'm not really eating cake right now, but all this talk of cake and cookies is making me hungry!).  Am I eating it because I've been eating a whole lot more sweets lately and my brain is telling me that I want sweets, or is it because I just had a killer week of working out and eating clean, and I'm at my sisters friends wedding and I just want a darn piece of cake for goodness sake. 

See the difference? 

What's your why?

My why sometimes gets cloudy.  I want to be healthy first and foremost.  But sometimes I get side tracked and start thinking that I need to look like a fitness model and then I get in my crazy mode in which I'm never satisfied with the way I look.  That's when I have to pull myself back down to reality and remember my why is to feed my body with the best foods I can so I can perform the way I want to.

Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you I think Paleo is bad or tell you I think you should eat strictly Paleo.  I will tell you I think that carbs should be eaten in moderation and at certain times of the day.  I also think most people do not consume enough protein in one day.  Beyond that you have to decide what foods are best for YOUR body.  Like I said, my stomach just doesn't like certain foods and that is my real reason for staying away from a lot of foods. 

But maybe you aren't like me and you have a rock solid stomach, and you can eat whatever you want (I'm secretly hating you right now!).  In the end you still have to decide your why behind how and what you eat. 

If you are struggling to lose weight right now you might have to remind yourself of the why more often.  You might even need to remind yourself before each meal.  Why am I choosing to have a salad instead of a double bacon cheese burger?  Oh, that's right I have chosen to fill my insides with good things because I'm tried of feeling like crap all the time.  I'm tired of looking in the mirror and hating what I see (am I touching home a little). 

It's time to stop letting food control us! 

Okay, so here's the encouragement.  Because I can't let a blog like this be written without some encouragement (it's what I do!). 

You CAN overcome this!  Each day is a new day, and you can only take it one step at a time.  Sometimes it feels like 1 step forward and 2 back.  But guess what, your not dead yet.  Don't quit.  I wrote a blog not too long ago where I said as long as you have breath in you don't quit!  When the Going get tough.... Quit

I leave with a song by Mandisa.  Side note:  I've decided Mandisa and I could be best friends. :) 

 Stay Simply Healthy everyone!

~Heather