We live in a world where we’re made to feel guilty about food; don’t eat this, don’t eat that, this will kill you, that will kill you. Of course a lot of this is true, but you can take any food, create negative thoughts around it and actually make it unhealthier to consume with those stressful thoughts. After all, stress depletes nutrients from the body too. Nutritional November rule NUMBER ONE … don’t feel guilty. Just enjoy it! And not only is it Treat Yo Self Tuesday BUT Melbourne Cup Day so have some fun and love yourself for it.

The worst thing you can do when embarking on your healthy clean lifestyle is deprive yourself of certain food groups and ban any form of sweet treat or food that isn’t a dark leafy green. It goes without saying that when something is banned or off limits it only makes you want it more. Yes I have been there before… “This week I will NOT eat any chocolate”. This sounds great in theory and the week started with flying colours until Friday night. Home on the couch watching a movie and BANG the deprivation of chocolate or anything sweet during the week hits hard and before I knew it my stomach had just welcomed 4 squares of Lindt dark coconut intense (THE best flavor hands down), some healthy choc peanut butter slice (recipe HERE) from the freezer AND a hot soy chocolate… and I fortunately stopped myself before completely loosing it and reaching for the choc mint drumstick ice cream in the freezer. Once you start a binge… it is truly hard to stop. Yes this is NO WAY to live. And the worst part about it all was that I ate it all so damn fast that I didn’t actually ‘taste’ or ‘enjoy’ anything. The best way to avoid the binge and excessive chocolate intake at once is to NOT limit yourself of these food groups. One square of dark chocolate with your evening cuppa a couple of nights a week is the perfect solution to avoid the binge. After all dark chocolate is full of antioxidants that our body needs every now and again.

But the most important part of all… when you do eat something that is a little less nutritious than a bunch of kale… ENJOY THE HECK OUT OF IT!! Eat is slow. Taste each mouthful. Chew it and actually enjoy it! The wonderful Nutritionist Jessica Sepel says “Make each meal pleasurable. Get satisfaction out of your food! I get so excited about preparing my meals. I make them pretty and colourful. I sit down calmly and enjoy each mouthful. I usually make a positive blessing before I eat – “Thank you for this nutritional food. This food is going to nourish my body.” It creates a peaceful feeling when eating, and I feel satisfied after the meal. I don’t feel like eating more. I eat what I want and say no to food I don’t like. Sometimes you may feel like a bit of a food snob, but that’s okay. Eat the foods you actually love. This will come as you begin to heal your relationship with food.” link here

It is as simple as that. Eat what you want when you want. If you want a burger… have one! If you are craving pizza… make a home made healthier version or if that isn’t an option then go buy one!!
Food is supposed to be enjoyed. There is no point going on a disgusting celery juice or cabbage soup diet because you bet your bottom dollar that the first thing you will do when its over is cram as much ‘normal’ food into your body and only cause a negative backwards effect.

“It matters more what you do every day that what you do once in a while.”

Happy Treat Yo Self Tuesday and Melbourne Cup Day – now go eat some chocolate and feel damn good about it.
Be sure to enjoy today!! And have a little cheeky bet on the race!

K