Your “I deserve a treat” attitude is the reason you keep gaining weight
In the last week have you said, “I ate really well today I deserve that cookie/Chick-Fil-A/glass of wine.” I know that this is such a normal thought process; I hear people say it all the time, but that attitude of “I deserve this” or “I’ve earned this” is keeping you stuck! You’re gaining weight - even though you eat “good” 80% of the time - because you’re undoing all your hard work when you feel like you “deserve” a treat.
Let me clarify something really quick, it’s not that you can’t have the treat. You can have a glass of wine, you can go out to eat, you can have cookies! The problem is the attitude around the food and eating!
This “I deserve it” attitude creates a pattern in your brain that says you have to earn your food or that you have to “be good” before you can “be bad.” Most of the time this attitude leaves you feeling shame, guilt and regret because you think what you’ve done is bad.
Mama, you don’t deserve to feel that way! Especially not because of food!
There’s a way to enjoy food without being hit with all the terrible feelings. Every day, I show mamas how to eat in a way that makes them feel good without giving up their favorite foods! You can have that too.
Food - even treats - don’t need to be earned
I want to start with a principle that I don’t feel like people in the weight loss industry talk about nearly enough. Food does not need to be earned!
Food isn’t good. Food isn’t bad. Food is simply energy.
One of the things that really bother me about our culture, is that we attach so much of our worth and inherent goodness to our food choices.
We can’t enjoy a cupcake without feeling like we need to explain why we “deserve” to have one.
“I’ve been so good this week, so I’m just eating one cupcake!”
“I’m having a cheat day.”
“I worked out so I can eat this.”
Mama, you can have a cupcake because you want a cupcake without being a bad person, a bad mom or an unhealthy woman!
People are so judgemental of how everyone else eats that it creates so much emotional pain around food. It doesn’t have to be this way! Remember, food is energy!
Sometimes energy looks like chicken breasts and avocado. Sometimes it looks like a chocolate chip cookie. Neither choice is bad, it’s simply a choice!
This means you can enjoy the cupcake, the Chick-Fil-A, the wine, whatever it is for you, without feeling guilt, shame or regret. When you start to break free from this “deserving” or “earning” mindset you’ll break the negative emotions that come along with disordered eating and constant dieting.
Nutrition is 80% mindset and 20% food. If you want to lose weight for good, then you have to change how you think about food!
You deserve to eat in a way that serves you all the time
Let’s talk more about what you don’t and do deserve.
You don’t deserve to feel greasy and gross after a meal.
You don’t deserve to be on medication or constantly dieting because of your weight.
You don’t deserve to hide in your car or pantry to eat food that other people don’t think you should eat.
You don’t deserve to shy away from family photos or even the mirror because you don’t like what you see.
You don’t deserve to hate yourself.
These are all things that come from eating food that hurts you and from not prioritizing your health.
You deserve to feel good every day.
You deserve to have the energy and stamina to keep up with your kiddos.
You deserve to feel sexy!
You deserve to feel confident and beautiful and strong!
You deserve to love yourself unconditionally!
These are all things that come from eating well and choosing to prioritize your health.
To make this change, to move towards what you deserve and what you want your health and life to look like, you have to start making your health a priority.
This might mean that you skip out on fast food sometimes. It might mean that you skip the glass of wine - not because you don’t deserve it, but because you know you don’t deserve the headache that follows it.
Prioritizing your health shouldn’t feel like a big list of no’s. If it’s felt like that in the past, then you’ve been on a diet but you haven’t made a lifestyle change.
I want you to make a lifestyle change. A change that lasts more than a few weeks. I want you to build habits that last a lifetime! Habits that show you that your health and happiness are the priority!
Mamas are so guilty of putting themselves last on the list - me included! But when we start to put ourselves first it creates changes that ripples out to the whole family.
How to make your health & happiness a priority
The first way you can make your health and happiness a priority is by learning what feels good to you and what doesn’t. I encourage my clients to start a food journal (I like using MyFitnessPal because it’s so easy to use!) to learn what their food habits look like.
For the first week of your food journal, I don’t want you to make any changes. The goal is to observe and understand what your current habits look like.
Once you start to see that you end every night with ice cream and you go to bed feeling bloated, you’re going to want to make a change. But until you connect those dots it’s impossible to see what habits are serving you and which habits aren’t.
After you know what your habits look like, you can make little changes. And I mean LITTLE changes! Don’t try and solve every unhealthy habit you have in a week. You’ll burn out and give up in two days.
Instead, focus on one habit you’d like to improve. Maybe you want to start being more active, so you choose to go for a walk each day. Maybe you realize you don’t eat nearly enough protein, so you choose to have protein at every meal. Whatever it is, don’t move on until you feel comfortable with that habit.
One of the biggest struggles women face is knowing what food is good and then how much they should be eating. This is where it’s helpful to have a coach.
Everybody is different. Every woman has different physical needs and expenditures. This is why you don’t want to get a one-size-fits-all program. In my Macros Made Easy Program, I teach you what healthy eating looks like for YOU. For your body, your energy levels, for your life. I’ll help you find out how to lose weight without giving up your must-have foods. (My must-haves are coffee creamer and ice cream sandwiches, by the way!)
Mama, you deserve to love your food, love your body and love your life and that’s what I want you to learn in Macros Made Easy. Schedule a free discovery call because you deserve to feel good mama.
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