Your weekly #transformationtuesday #beforeandafter weekly reminder.
This Easter was one to remember. 🌷☀️ This experience may seem small and silly to some, but to me it was big!
I was able to enjoy candy, without eating more candy. 🍬🍫
Until now, being around candy & baked goods was seemingly “dangerous.” If I had 1, it turned into 1 handful, then the bag was gone, but then I’d have more, then I’d feel BLEGH & then I’d think the, oh so common thought, ☝️ “Starting clean Monday!” 🙌
🏃🏼♀️🏋🏼♀️ The next day would consist of what I now call, “punishment workout.” Working out to burn off the excess, “calories.”
If this ⬆️ wasn’t my behavior, I instead would think, “*no candy.” ❌🍬 And I would avoid it, telling myself, “I’m so good” for being sugar free. Others would also call me, “so good” for not having any. I literally thought that *this was my, “willpower.”
🤷🏼♀️ It seemed so common. Candy restricting or candy binging. There were even MEMES about it on Instagram… making fun and light of my eating disorder behaviors… and other people did it to.
You either, 1- Not have any candy 2- Punish yourself for having any. Seemed pretty normal to me.
⭐️ This Easter, as I have now applied Intuitive Eating for 18 months, I have accepted, learned AND experienced freedom from all these distortions around me…
I haven’t had one Cadbury egg or any candy this Easter. I had a couple m&m’s… but that was it. I wasn’t restricting myself, I wasn’t restricting at all. I just didn’t want any. I knew I could have it. I gave myself 100% permission. And I didn’t want it. At all. Any of it.
I enjoyed some homemade baked goods for dessert, but there wasn’t that distorted thinking of a cinnamon roll being, “good or bad.”
All of it, gone.
✋ I don’t post this to boast or say that Eating no candy was an, “accomplishment.”
⭐️ The accomplishment was, I was present. In the moment. No food talk, no mind games, no shame, just pure enjoyment for the day. Free from food.
To be honest, this wasn’t just an “Easter accomplishment.” This is how I live everyday, more in tune. More present.
Intuitive Eating has made me more present in the moment, this is the real benefit.
Intuitive Eating has made me enjoy life more. ❌No talking about calories, (with friends or in my head) ❌No more comparing my body. ❌No more worrying about my appearance. No more food talk.
👉 Because those things don’t matter….. No matter WHAT size you may be, they don’t matter.
❤️ Your heart matters. Your worth matters. Your spirit matters. Your relationships matter. **Those things matter.
This weekend has been one of the greatest weekends I have experienced in my life. Top 3 in the book of Cara’s Life, ha ha. But no, not because of this experience, but because of something greater than myself that I wouldn’t have been able to be a part of, if I were caught up in dieting. (See my last blog, “I Know a Peace I’ve Never Known.”) I don’t think I would have been able to be in tune with My Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and the people around me, if it wasn’t for Intuitive Eating. Dieting wraps oneself up in oneself and food. I have come to find, that a life of dieting keeps life revolved around appearances and food.
Intuitive Eating is freedom from this.
There are so many experiences, and important people in life that will pass us by if we continue to keep our focus on our body and food. If we continue to diet.
So what does this have to do with “before and after pictures?”
A point I would like to end on is, I don’t need a before and after picture of my body to get a point across. I did look different last year, and the year before that, and the year before that… but my appearance has nothing to do with this change I have had.
Comparing myself to myself 1 year ago in a picture simply has one focus, the appearance of my body…
I believe that no matter what point one is trying to make, they can make it without comparing the appearance of their body. Because the appearance of your body is not important.
You’re more than the appearance of your body, Remind everyone around you. Because although “Food talk, Calorie talk, Dieting talk” all may seem harmless to you, it can be hindering to those around you.
thehealthylifeisgood 