The Rebel

Team Body Firm~

Picture this…you are on your way to dinner thinking about this amazing piece of fish you’ll have on a nice salad without too much cheese or other saturated fats and you’ll order light dressing on the side.   You’ll have a lot of water with lemon, maybe some herbal tea and you’ll feel amazing that you stuck to your healthy eating plan.  You know you’ll feel so proud of yourself and when you wake up the next morning for your workout you’ll be light and on top of your game.

You walk in to the restaurant and the special of the day is your favorite…chicken fried steak with scalloped potatoes in a deep butter sauce with a side of sweet potato fries and broccolini with a cheddar cheese topping.

There’s even a dessert thrown into the special…another favorite, chocolate lava cake.

What the heck, you deserve it!  You aren’t going to let anyone tell you what to eat…you are an adult who can make adult decisions and you are allowed to indulge.  You will do what you want,  it’s no big deal and you want that special.

Here’s the kicker.  You eat the special and you feel less than stellar within an hour.  You are bloated, full, and quite frankly wish you would never have ordered the special.  The crazy thing is you wish you would have ordered the fish because it’s really what you wanted!  You really love the good for you foods.  The problem is you are so accustomed to being the rebel and denying being told “what to do” that you wanted to choose something off the plan.  Really though, you didn’t even want it!  It’s a case of “I’ll show me”!

When we start to get healthier, we go through this transition of what we want to rebel against and what we actually want.   We really DO want the healthy foods, but we don’t know how to let go of the rebellious side..  We really LIKE the healthy foods. We are simply so accustomed to being “that person who does what they want”, we don’t recognize the person who’s choosing nutrition, so we go the opposite way and ultimately feel terrible!

What would it be like if you “gave in” and chose what you really wanted?  Yes, what you REALLY wanted?  To feel good.  To feel light.  To enjoy the taste of nutritious food.  To feel energized the next morning?  To smile at the choices you made?  What would that be like…to rebel against the old you?

Don’t get me wrong, a little lava cake and scalloped potatoes here and there does taste yummy…but it will taste amazing fewer and fewer times as your taste buds get used to what the other side (the healthy one) looks and tastes like.  It’s quite a transition to let yourself love good for you foods.

Next time you are in this position of choice…consider what is it you really want to feel, taste and recover from?   The special, or your first thought of action?  Be the rebel…rebel against the old voice.

Tammy Parkinson