Today, I’m Getting Back on Track!
/Today, I’m getting back on track!
How many Mondays have you said this to yourself?
How many times have you started your week with promises to eat better, eat less, eat clean, eat perfectly?
If this sounds familiar, you’re so not alone. It used to be my weekly pattern.
On Sunday nights, I would lie in bed regretting how badly I felt I had eaten all weekend.
To quiet my inner food police and alleviate the guilt, shame and anxiety I felt, I’d promise myself that, starting tomorrow, things would be different.
Full of Hope
I’d wake up Monday feeling excited and hopeful about getting my act together.
Often, I’d be “good” and feel in control for the first few days of the week.
By Thursday night, however, things would start to fall apart. My discipline and willpower would begin to diminish.
I’d find myself obsessing about food, giving into my cravings, breaking my food rules, and reuniting with all the “bad” foods I declared off-limits on Monday.
I’d try to fight it for a while, but eventually, I’d just throw my hands in the air exclaiming, “What the hell; I might as well just go for it because come Monday, I’m never letting myself do this again!”
Endless Cycle
Every weekend became a Last Supper.
It was an endless, exhausting cycle.
When I finally hit rock bottom and realized how damaging my diet mentality was, I began taking steps toward healing my relationship with food and my body.
This included breaking up with diet culture, ditching my diet mentality and food rules, and learning how to trust my body and eat intuitively again.
Of course, this didn’t happen overnight.
Intuitive Eating is not a quick fix. It is, however, a pathway to freedom.
Since there are no rules and no illegal foods, there's no possibility of being bad, failing the plan and getting thrown in dieting jail.
No Wagon
Now, Mondays are just another day for me.
The idea of “getting back on track” doesn’t enter my mind on the first day—or any day—of the week.
I always tell my clients you can’t fall off the wagon with Intuitive Eating because there is no wagon!
Not Your Fault
Engaging in the “I’m getting back on track” mindset is nothing to feel bad or ashamed about.
It’s a practice we learn from our $72 billion diet industry—a pervasive, insidious and oppressive industry that profits from you feeling crappy about your eating and your body.
The good news is: you have a choice. You can keep hopping on and off the wagon. Or you can ditch the wagon all together.
