But it sure is if you haven’t found the food you’ll love that would satisfy and nourish you at the same time.
It was a battle. It has always been a battle, to be frank. Me vs. broccoli. Me vs. the scale. Me vs. chocolate. I remember the day I decided to turn my life around and eat healthier. All of those days. You know what I’m talking about, right? I’m sure that no person ever started their first weight loss journey and succeeded in it. Most of us started, failed, restarted, fell off the wagon again, picked ourselves up, gave it another go… Sounds familiar?
Yeah, me too. Countless times. And I am a little ashamed, to be honest.
Ugh, why can’t healthy food be yummy? Why aren’t restrictions more fun? Why isn’t exercise lovable?
The last couple of tries got me to a painful realization that constantly fighting my body isn’t getting me anywhere… I’m constantly fighting hunger, food guilt, forcing rigorous exercise on my tired body, feeling like a failure and still not being able to lose weight. The body always wins… I push it to the extreme; it answers me with monstrous cravings that set me back for days or weeks. WTF?
Well, if you think it through – it was made to survive thousands of years on a little, not nourishing food that just wasn’t available all the time. It was made to consume and then save it. Those mechanisms still thrive in our bodies because they just didn’t get the memo that times have changed, skinny is the new beautiful, and that food is EVERYWHERE.
And now… With dieting and exercising, I’m pushing all the wrong buttons. The less food I eat, the larger the appetite. So…
It seems we’re bound to fail.
Unless we are able to trick our body into thinking it’s not a food crisis. It sure is working for me when I make an effort to calm those survival alarms down and give my body what it craves in terms of nourishment rather than pure taste.
Junk food can be fairly easily replaced with a healthy appetite. The thing that is in your favor is that your body will crave the food it’s used to. So once you’re through the gentle food replacement phase, you should be good. The bad news is that it will take time. Like a lot. A couple of months or so.
Just don’t switch french fries with broccoli on your first day like I did many times. Make the change gradual. Chop the carrots in the shape of french fries and bake them in a pan. Start with little changes. I wish I did that years ago. It would sure make my life a lot easier.
