Potlucks, Fried Chicken, and Lumpia, Oh My!

I’m sharing a blog from a couple of years ago that’s a good reminder of how to keep overeating in perspective during the holidays -- hope you enjoy it. ❤️

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I went to a potluck at work the other day, and it just happened to be my sixth holiday gathering in the span of five days.

And going in, I could tell my body wanted something healthier than it was about to get.

Part of my contribution was a salad. But since I don’t believe in or teach my clients deprivation, I also planned to have some of the food that was there.

I sampled a few items and fried chicken and some homemade lumpia, a Filipino spring roll, were among them.

They. were. delicious.

But later that day, my body was not happy and it let me know it with one of the worst stomach aches I’ve had.

And my brain totally went into self-critical thoughts...

“Oh geez, why did I do that?”

“I can’t believe I ate that.”

“What was I thinking?”

Ever been there? Truthfully, after a lifetime of on-again-off-again dieting, I can tell you that the path to beating myself up is well worn in my brain.

My brain is so used to constant self-monitoring and expertly judging what I’m eating whether I’m trying to lose weight or not.

The good news here is realizing that this is how our brains work by default. Our primal brains were designed to sense dangers -- from predators -- and to warn us.

However, since there are relatively few actual dangers in modern life, our brain often goes into worry overdrive about other things that aren’t really dangerous. 

Trust me, cake is not our enemy.

The difference now is that I can notice those thoughts, and I can view them like a small circus act. I like to visualize one of those wind up monkey toys playing the drums.

I can notice those thoughts and I can CHOOSE other ways of viewing the situation.

Maybe...

“My body clearly didn’t like that.”

“I’ve been taking better care of my body, and I'm not used to so much fried food.”

“Now I know that fried foods make my tummy ache.”

I can look at the experience as simply data. 

Data is just neutral information. 

It has no judgment attached to it. 

Did the aching stomach feel great? Nope. But beating myself up never helps either. 

The crazy thing is how fast our brain processes these thoughts. And while I’ve learned to notice and to redirect my thinking pretty quickly, the negative thought train STILL visits often. 

So, I call it out -- “Not my circus, not my monkeys!” -- and I move on to ways of thinking that help me make a different decision. In this case, having some hot tea and some Tums.

For me, this process of caring for my mind has been one of the missing ingredients to taking care of my body in ways that I can live with. 

I can’t tell you how many times that negative thought train has run me over in the past. 

I would take the “mistakes” I made on some diet plan and make them mean that I couldn’t do it...that I should just give up. Surely, those mistakes meant I wasn’t ready for a change. 

Now I know none of that is true. 

Want to learn more? Join me in learning how to take amazing care of your mind and body and release some weight in the process? The first step is to set up a free call to explore how I can help. >>> Click here to set up a call. <<<