Monday, February 18, 2013

Living a lifestyle, not a lie



Today on Facebook, I saw this picture: (caution, there are curse words)



Does anyone feel like this? 

Sometimes when we set goals it feels necessary to share those goals with the people around us; co-workers, family, friends. I think we tell ourselves:

Self: "Telling people that I am working on losing weight will hold me more accountable" 

People around you: "Oh another diet...cool."

Unfortunately, our willingness to work on changing our lifestyle is not always perceived as a lifestyle change, but sometimes perceived as a diet, or a work out kick. 

Changing your lifestyle is hard!!! Friends, family and co-workers are awesome but they shouldn't hold the sole responsibility of holding you accountable for your lifestyle changes. Don't make a lunch choice because you fear the judgement of others based on your proclaimed goals, make a better lunch choice because it's a step in changing your lifestyle. 

A lot of people think of a diet as this: 



Obviously, agonizing over sprinkles is trivializing how difficult it is to make smart choices and figure out what a balanced diet means. 

An Example:

Last night Marty and I cut into this chocolate peanut butter filled egg I bought from Harry and David. It looked a little like this:


After eating some of it and storing the rest, I sat down to track my food. I saw that if I tracked the egg I would go over my calorie goal for the day because I hadn't exercised. Part of me really didn't want to track the food. I thought: no one cares that I ate some of that egg, it's not like I have any friends on MyFitnessPal, what does it matter? 

I had to stop these thoughts, because to me it feels like I'm keeping secrets. Secret food is not good food, it's a behavior pattern that inhibits me from being transparent about my lifestyle and doesn't make me feel good. 

I don't feel BAD for eating some of that chocolate egg. I did go over my calories. I did track my calories. 

Secret food, or secret candy is not a good habit.


Friends, you still ate the calories. For me, candy is part of a balanced lifestyle, I really like sugar and have an insane sweet tooth. If I don't include sweets in my daily, yes daily eating, I will binge on sugar. 

Today, I am encouraging you to live a lifestyle, not a lie. What are things that you need to include in your lifestyle that are unique to you, things that you can share with others without having to feel ashamed?

Me:

I like candy.

I will not exercise every single day.

Sometimes, I eat taco bell.

I don't hate myself for the food I eat.

I need to track my food to hold MYSELF accountable.

People who judge me based on what I eat are not people I want in my life.


I found this meme and really liked it:



Now don't take this to mean that cookies and sugar are what should make you feel better, but I think being balanced and feeling good about your choices, even if it's cookies or cake is okay. 


Remember, you're trying to live a lifestyle, not a lie. No one is perfect.

Questions of the Day:

What are things that make your lifestyle unique?

Do you eat secret candy?

Do you share your goals with friends, family or co-workers?

2 comments:

  1. This kind of reminds me of how I will sometimes undercount the carbohydrates I eat. I'm a type 1 diabetic, and I manage it by counting carbs and giving the correspondinga mount of insulin. But sometimes I don't want to admit that I ate something, but it's like, my body doesn't give a crap if I don't want to admit it. It still happened! So yeah, secret food is pointless because the only person it really counts is you and you can't fool yourself, so might as well be honest. :) Great post! (The egg looks AWESOME.)

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    1. Allison, I know how you feel. In the end you will see the difference in tracking on the scale. It sometimes helps me to track food before I eat it. Then I feel like I'm make an informed decision. The egg was aweseome!

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