I’ve come to realize something about me and food. The healthier I eat, the better I feel. Duh!
Here’s my confession. I’m a chocolate junkie. Every day at 4 o’clock…WHAM! I NEED my fix — I feel compelled, as if I have no choice in the matter, to reach into my coveted chocolate stash.
Yesterday, I did something different.
Crunchy Kale Salad
(with egg & brussel sprouts) Click for recipe!
I started a cleanse… (I can hear you now, “not another cleanse?!” but this one is awesome … I know because I’ve done it before.) Designed by food & body coach Jamie Greenwood (scroll down to hear an audio download of my recent conversation with Jamie), the cleanse is simple – eat lots of delicious food BUT… no dairy, wheat, soy, caffeine, alcohol OR SUGAR.
What? No sugar???
I’ve been an anti-depravation girl my whole life, convinced it’s better not to deny myself the foods I crave. The logic? The more I deprive myself, the more I’ll want. So with chocolate I’ve kept an open door policy, always allowing for one more bite, then maybe just another, … the bar’s gone.
For my birthday last year I decided to give myself a gift – the Jamie Living Freakin’ Rad Fall Cleanse. Cool right? NEVER in my life had I given up sugar before so I was scared. Scared that I’d fail and let myself down.
Viktor Frankl, the German psychotherapy pioneer, said
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response, lie our growth and our freedom.
Between my craving and my habitual eating there is space. Now I have to figure out what to do with that space.
Reframing this challenge as a gift to myself transformed my perceived depravation, into something positive.
The truth is during the first few days I felt down right ill. However, like morning fog in the Bay Area it lifted and ….wow, the FREEDOM I felt. Not la-dee-dah “I’m free”, but HOLY COW! – I’m FREE! I was free of my craving and even more, free of the constant preoccupation that came with it.
Vanilla Maple Granola
Click for recipe!
I’m not suggesting you throw away your Hershey stash. It’s different for everyone. Look at what you might be eating, drinking, watching, or avoiding to deny yourself the space to grow and be free.
In my Parenting Class, beginning September 26th, we spend only half of one session talking about self-care. The fact is self-care runs through every principle and tool, every discussion, every single class. Self-care is foundational. Self-care creates spaciousness.
“Children do better when they feel better,” says Positive Discipline expert Jane Nelsen. This applies to us parents too.
I’m taking the next 10 days to make space, notice it and breathe in the life I need to thrive and be the best parent I can be. Here on day 2 I’m a bit foggy but experience tells me I’ll be soaring soon 🙂
To hear my conversation with Jamie Greenwood and learn more about living a healthier, spacious life click below. Email Jamie at info@jamieliving.com to sign up for her free Body on Board call on Oct. 2.
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Now it’s your turn! Remember, your comments remind us that we’re not alone, that we’re part of a community in the toughest job of all.
CONSIDER⇔SHARE⇔ACT
What keeps you from slowing down and acknowledging the space to choose how you live?
What happens in those moments when you do have space?
How do your habits impact parenting?
I am so with you on the sugar cravings but have to say that cutting cold turkey was the only way I could get the sugar monkey off my back. 6 months and still doing pretty well. I still want chocolate every day but it’s soooo much easier to say no now. Love the healthy fast idea!!! How do you get your family to go along? That’s the tough part for me. Really appreciate this focus.
Great question! I talk with my kids about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. Because I’m making hummus and cutting up carrots and serving more salad – they are naturally eating more of the good stuff! Tonight I’m going out and making them mac & cheese and they’re thrilled! Simply put – leading by example!