Take What You Can Use

I saw this printed on a card:

Take what you can use, and let the rest go by.

Perhaps we were told as kids that we needed to take what we were given, eat everything on our plates because there were children starving in Africa (that's still true, but it's true in America, too) and settling for "good enough" was safer than being without a (fill in the blank).


It's easy to continue these patterns of thinking, when we don't interrupt those storylines.


That's how we end up overweight, stuck in jobs we don't like (but are convinced we need) and in relationships with people who don't really make us feel happy, precious and fulfilled. Or we keep ourselves forever in limbo, never deciding to jump down onto one side of the fence that's stuck up our butts because we listen to the opinions of too many people, never our own. Sometimes we make a decision to do the exact opposite of what we need, because we are too scared.


We don't need to do this.


Here was something I noticed about myself recently: I wasn't doing the same old thing when it came to eating sweet things.



I bought this muffin one morning:

                                         

I took what I could use, and left the rest behind.


I quieted the voice that said, "you spent money on it. Finish it."


No. I was full. Moreover, the part I was SO excited about (the icing) was the part I left behind. I ate the moist carrot goodness, instead.


Here's another example a week later:

                                              

I got this chocolate chip cookie because I L-O-V-E them, but took this picture of it sitting on my kitchen counter three days later.


These are stories of me and food and how I have learned to eat what I want, when I want it, and be able to leave something behind---not feeling the need to finish it. If I want something, I go for it--because giving in to a craving is the best way to beat it.


You know me. I'm not a calorie-counter. Those days are over for me, but I know folks still struggling with this. They also struggle with the small decisions in life, just like me. Here's a quick breakdown to make eating (and life) easier. Think of things like this:


Did you know that you know that you'd have to literally eat a truckload of vegetables and fruits to equal the amount of calories in a package of cookies?  CHECK THIS PICTURE OUT!


Life like that, too. Sometimes, you have to sit down, weigh things out and take a good look. 


Once you do that, you realize what you want to take and what you want to leave behind.


First, you have to know what you need...


What support do you have to figure that out? I have some virtual coaching slots open as we begin 2012. Would you like to claim one? click on the MAKE AN APPOINTMENT tab above. ;)