Kale and Cookies

This girl…she eats kale and cookies; drinks beer and superfoods; knows when to hustle and when to rest. Does she do it perfectly all the time? Nope. Does she feel deprived? Also, nope.

I’ve been down that road of “earning” that treat meal or in some cases that entire treat day. And I can tell you that cycle of restrict and binge was not healthy mentally or probably even physically for me. And it was most definitely not sustainable. Not to mention the results were mediocre at best. Every since making a pretty big change in my health and fitness routine last summer I have experienced so much freedom around food. Fitness no longer feels like a sentence so that I can binge. It also doesn’t feel like a “have to”, but more of a “want to”.

Are you that girl  that is SO good throughout the week, then the weekend hits and you let your diet go completely out the window, convincing yourself that you have worked so hard and deserve to let loose? This might not be a news flash, but you CANNOT out train a bad diet. You also aren’t a dog that needs to ‘earn’ your food. When I had the restriction mindset, I was food obsessed (sort of like my 9 month old pup). It took so much energy to think about what NOT to eat all day/week, that by the time Friday or Saturday hit, I went crazy.

 It’s crazy how much food you actually *get* to eat when you are fueling your body based on nutrient dense foods rather than just feeding it to consume calories. One of the biggest things I coach my girls on is to know your end goal and know that there might be certain seasons where you will need to or want to tighten things up a bit in your diet and be a bit more disciplined. There might also be seasons when your fitness  takes a bit more of a back burner so that you can give your energy to other important things in life. Fitness isn’t all or nothing.

In whatever season you find yourself in  LOVE yourself. Speak kind words. And treat this one precious body with some r-e-s-p-e-c-t. You are not a garbage can that needs to finish your kiddo’s plate or that needs to consume all of the snacks in the cupboard when life has you a bit stressed out. Finding ways other than food to cope has been a big component to this new found fit life that I am living. Often times when we are restricting and binging it has less to do with the food and weight loss and perhaps more to do with issues we are not wanting to deal with head on. I am by no means an expert in this field, just a girl that has had some pretty gnarly thoughts toward herself, her body, and food and who has found freedom.