Fit By ___

I have a lady who makes THE BEST cakes in the world! She made our wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and even graduation cakes. She is the go-to cake person in my life and she’s been a huge influence on me as I was growing up. She’s always been a part of my life and I love her greatly. Her cakes are off the charts good. I mean… give me cake or give me death. The moment I taste one of her cakes, I can be instantly transported to every major celebration in my life. Ah, those happy places and times…

Our whole culture is centered around celebrating with food. Think about it. When you celebrate with friends and family, it’s around a meal. Every birthday… it’s cake. Every milestone is celebrated at your favorite place to eat. You go on vacation, you take a vacation from your food plan… everything is marked by food. I am equally a part of this cultural problem. When my kids do well, we go get ice cream. When it’s their birthday, we take them to their favorite place to eat. And the cycle continues… #Merica!

How do we shift a culture… How do we shift our historical way of thinking… How do we remove food from the celebrate and focus on the event or the people we gather with?

That’s tough, right?

Emotionally, I want to celebrate with food. Why… because the food is my drug… because food makes me feel good… because food has always been there for me. My emotional attachment to food is so deep within me… for years, I have covered up my emotions with food. Sure, maybe it’s not alcohol or drugs, but it’s still killing me… it’s just taking longer to kill me. If I know that my food triggers are often those foods that I celebrate with, what can I do to not set myself up for failure? How do I break the cycle of celebrating with my food drugs?

Plan! (As you can tell, this is the most important thing I do in life… have a plan)

I started this journey during “the eating season” other-wise-know-as; Thanksgiving and Christmas. I made a plan with my nutrition guy, Jamie Free, and he said I could have one thing that I wanted at one meal. In my case, I wanted to have some Bourbon. He allowed me to have that one thing, as long as I promised that bourbon would be it, and I would be immediately back on plan. So, that’s what I did. At one of the many celebrations we had, I had one bourbon and then back on plan. The same was true for Christmas, I had one thing and then was immediately back on plan. I have accountability with Jamie and I allow him to dictate the pool I’m allowed to swim in. With him and the plan he gave me, I lost fat during the eating season. That’s a much better feeling than regret, self-hate, or complete failure.

As I say often, make a plan and stick to it. Stay focused on the unknown positive possibilities that could happen from staying on plan and feeling like a winner! Don’t stop… Keep Going!