Tonight I went to my local summer farmer’s market, hungry and searching for a treat – special foods to dress up my meals. Years ago, my quest for a treat would’ve meant buying a dessert – a batch of cookies, a homemade pie, kettle corn fresh from the pot.
But today I surveyed the offerings and bought a beautiful bunch of baby orange, yellow and purple carrots; some lettuce out of a neighbor’s garden; fresh blueberries, picked in Oregon the previous day; snap peas to eat right from the bag.
I came home and made a salad with my produce, topped with my favorite homemade dressing, pine nuts, and a bit of grilled chicken. I had the blueberries for dessert. Delicious.
It’s easy to turn healthy eating into food obsession, or into an exercise in rigidity, control and self-denial. Your eating habits can turn into fuel for the ego, to feed your sense of moral superiority or how “good” you are. (See how healthy I eat? You should only have the will power to eat like I do….)
Food is a pleasure. To be enjoyed. I can choose to abstain from sugar, an approach that some people may view as rigid, while also enjoying a wide variety of luscious foods. While celebrating food, the bounty on my plate. When I focus on how food makes me feel, then I’m not labeling foods as “good” or “bad,” and myself as “good” or “bad” for eating them. This disarms my ego’s need to feel right, good and superior.
One of the blessings of this journey is reclaiming your love for food – for real, honest to goodness food, not the junk you thought you needed to feel full, happy and comforted. You learn to love the food that loves you back. And to love food, period – it’s not the enemy!
Instead of focusing on how “good” or clean you eat, instead focus on love. Focusing on loving and enjoying your food. Focus on how eating certain foods make you feel. This is the easiest way I know to make healthy eating a lifelong habit, a true lifestyle change.
I like feeling good. Which is why I don’t eat sugar, why I limit the processed food I eat, and why I spring for fresh vegetables.
The next time you want a treat, stop, pause and ask yourself:Â What do I really want? What foods make me feel good? The answers may surprise you. Follow that advice, and keep following it. You’ll come to love the foods that love you back.
Hi Karly,
I love the new website and I appreciate all of your wisdom. I went off of sugar for several months. Slowly, fruit/Larabars/corn became like the drug sugar for me. Around Christmas, I was snowed in for a week and decided to bake cookies. I am on an 8 month binge for any and all sugar because I was so deprived. The sugar addiction came roaring back and I have gained 57 lbs since Christmas. I weigh 320 now and I am miserable. My question to you is, since I seem to be all or nothing around sugar, what do you suggest for me to get back on track. Deprivation always finds a way to make me gain even more weight than I lost over and over.
Thank you for your time.
Joy