Don’t Let the Diet Demons Derail You

You wake up in the morning to a mug of hot green tea, enjoy your oatmeal and almonds for breakfast, and then jet off to your job.  For lunch, you munch on a salad full of greens, beans, and an olive oil and vinegar dressing.  You manage to get in a quick walk during your lunch hour before powering through the rest of the day.  You’re proud of the healthy choices you make, but are diet demons lurking?

Diet demons come in many forms: distractors, detractors, and disguisers. And they’re likely not going to go away.  So, here’s my suggestion for how to deal with them because honey, I’ve been there too!

Distractor:

• Defined: a person or thing that distracts.
• In real life: the plate of cookies sitting in the break room on your lunch hour, the free mint that comes with your check when you’re out to eat, Channing Tatum who has you so focused on the television screen and not the bowl of yummy popcorn you just plowed through...oops.
• How to deal: practice mindful eating, let distraction work in your advantage (when not hungry, choose non-food based activities like taking a walk, calling a friend, drawing, or scrolling through pinterest), politely say “no” when offered a food that distracts from your overall healthy eating goals.

Detractor:

• Defined: one who disparages or belittles the worth of something.
• In real life: husbands/wives who undervalue your attempts to eat right and move more, friends who call the salad you ordered at dinner “bird food” or “rabbit food,” family who thinks you’re on a “health kick” that will soon end.
• How to deal: consistently believe in yourself and keep doing what you’re doing - I'm cheering you on!  Though you shouldn’t have to justify the healthy choices you make (do they justify their poor ones?), tell them what you’re doing and why and ask them for their support. 

Disguisers:

• Defined: Something or someone modified by manner or appearance in order to prevent recognition.
• In real life: Food processed so much it’s become nutritionally inferior to its whole food counterpart, “food” products with ingredients made in a chemistry lab (hydrogenated oils, anything artificial including sweeteners, flavors, and colors).
• How to deal: become a food investigator – know what’s in the food you’re creating and eating by reading the nutrition facts panel and ingredient labels, asking the chef what ingredients are used, choosing more whole, real foods and less “chemicals.”

Awareness is the first step to getting back on the healthy train.  What diet demons derail you?  Comment below or write me on Facebook for continued conversation!