Happy 2018 – Day 364 – Festive Gains and Losses

If the saying, “you are what you eat,” is even slightly true. Then my body and mind is currently made up of buffet food and Marzipan.

And wow do I know it.

You don’t actually notice how good your base level was, until you’ve plummeted thanks to a diet of beige, processed (albeit delicious) food. You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, right?! In fact, the only thing that has risen are my blood-alcohol levels and the number on the scales.

If I’m usually a 7, I’ve been consistently 3 or under this week – in mind, body and soul. Lethargic, irritable, distracted and significantly more anxious than usual.

It’s funny – because until I was in my mid-twenties, I actually lived on a diet of beige, processed food… all year round. I can’t actually remember what my mood and energy was like – though I know I slept more, watched more TV and never exercised.

So this week, to me, always feels like a mini-blast from the past; an experiment in how I used to feel, permanently.

Horrible. 

Thus, when I’m looking to January and feeling an urge to cut out the convenience crap…. it’s much easier to see this in terms of gain, not loss.

Yes, I’ll miss some moments of mouth pleasure. I’ll have to think ahead and get organised, so that business doesn’t lead to poor choices.

But this is incomparable with the mental, physically and emotional gains that a diet of natural, colourful whole-foods will bring; the joy of eating a meal, cooked from scratch, knowing that it’s as delicious as it is nutritious; or the feeling of working out, when you’re feeling light and energetic.

Remember: What you focus on, you get more of.

So focus on what you’re gaining, not losing. And the only thing you’ll actually lose is the excess weight and the food hangover.