Ready, set, go!
You’ve just put your three year old down for the night and you have 30 minutes to work. It’s 30 minutes because you’ve promised yourself that you’d block off some time to relax and get to bed at a decent time. You need sleep but there’s so much to do….sound familiar? Or is it just me? Does anyone else try to squeeze a bit more out of the day at night? Can anyone relate?
Life is such a balancing act. I say this as a dietitian; I say this as a business owner, a wife, a mom. It will never be perfect. If we try to do too many things we won’t do any of them well. This is where grace comes in. You may not always meet other people’s expectations. Or, maybe you’re an enneagram type one, like me, and really struggle to meet your own expectations. Whether the pressure is coming from others or yourself, you can choose how you let it affect you. My answer to that is grace. It’s giving myself permission to let go of the expectations and instead care for myself. I choose to be kind and compassionate to myself… my own most difficult critic.
Apply the same to eating. It’s a part of your life and since you’re human, it’s never going to be perfect. You’re never going to have the perfect nutrition from every meal, eat the perfect amount all the time and have a clean kitchen constantly. Maybe that last one was a bit beside the point. What I’m saying is that an all or nothing mentality has no place here. Every choice you make to care for yourself, to nourish your body is one you can be proud of. Every time you eat something that you decide wasn’t particularly helpful to your goals, but was good for your soul, relish it and move on. Your body can handle it. You can handle it. You didn’t destroy or ruin anything. You aren’t a bad person and there’s no shame in enjoying food. Give yourself grace with food.
There’s grace and it’s freeing. Allowing yourself those choices will lead to a healthier you in many ways. For one, when we say a food is off limits, it becomes more appealing. That’s just how it works. On the other hand, if you allow it and if it’s no longer “forbidden fruit,” then it has less of a hold on you. You can eat it and become satisfied much more quickly with this mindset.
There are so many tidbits of wisdom I would like to share with you, but I’m keeping it short and sweet.
Give yourself some grace with food this weekend, and then the next day and the next.
Love yourself well. You are worthy.
-Roni
