Just Think.

HMMM. Are you wondering how the title of this post has anything to do with Julia Roberts? I'll get there. If any of you saw that movie based on the book Eat Pray Love, you know that Julia's character goes to Italy and indulges in all the fabulous pizza and pasta and pastries she can.

Great book, by the way. Anyway, this isn't a judgement on the book or the movie or on eating all you want in Italy. I'm talking about this concept of someone LIKE Julia's character, who is like many of us, strung out, too busy, yadda yadda yadda.....

And she's probably dieted like crazy and worked like crazy and so she goes on her sabbatical (or say on a vacation for some of us) and says, "Forget all the rules I've been enslaved by- I'm in Italy, I'm going to ENJOY THIS!"-- which basically says that for all the rest of her life back home, she had been DENYING herself the "carbs" and sugar and such. So, she's in Italy, and because in her mind, this is a DEPARTURE- this is another planet, another time, where "normal rules" don't apply, she eats. She eats a LOT of pasta, of wine, of dessert, of pizza.....because she's been so denied these simple pleasures for so long and really- in her mind, she's thinking, "This moment of time is going to end, and I have to go back to my rules and my life with all its restrictions, I better ENJOY THE HELL OUT OF THIS NOW..."

Someone might go on an Italian eating bender and have this table of food just for themselves......because they think probably that every day back in "normal life" has to have meals like this:

Minus the sauce on the chicken of course. OMG If I never have another plain grilled chicken breast on a plate with steamed broccoli, I'm fine with that.

HAVE I MADE MY POINT YET? Um No. I'm getting there. Did you ever think a blog or a vlog from KO would be BRIEF?? 

When you have an "All Or Nothing" mindset about food and working out, (FOR MANY OF US, I'D SUGGEST A LOT OF US) you can be setting yourself up for disaster. This is what I've seen in myself as I've evaluated the past two years of what I label "Psycho Dieting". You deny yourself everything and feel that the ONLY WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT is to eat chicken, broccoli and water. And anything outside of that- even a piece of fruit, is totally "falling off the wagon". Furthermore, if you really go nutty and have something CRAZY like spaghetti or wine or a cupcake- FORGET IT! YOU'VE BLOWN IT!! Better just throw in the towel for that week......you're being "BAD" so why not be REALLY BAD and just gorge yourself? 

This is where the JUST THINK part applies.

This is a child, in "deep thought" mode. When kids think about food, they don't analyze carbs or calories or fat grams. They just eat. When they FEEL HUNGRY and they don't naturally tend to gorge themselves or binge. They just naturally eat based on what their body tells them they want. They don't overthink food. 

So--- how do we as adults get ourselves back to being able to have a NORMAL HEALTHY relationship with food? I suggest it begins with THINKING. Many of us have stopped thinking about food in a NORMAL fashion. That's why in a situation like Julia Roberts' character, we'd say, "Wow I'm in this temporary alternate universe where it's ok to eat pasta and pizza--- I need to shove all I can in my body for these two weeks before I go back to prison normal life where I'm not allowing myself not allowed to eat real food...."

Just Think. Stop and think. Food is not the enemy. A BAD RELATIONSHIP with food is the enemy. 

Quite often, if you "interview" healthy people, naturally thin/lean people, you'll see that they eat all kinds of food. They also tend to not eat a TON. They also tend to not be that concerned with it. Now--- some REALLY HEALTHY peeps, like competitive bodybuilders and figure competitors- those with like 10% body-fat, those types are quite often very focused on what they eat, because with that level of body-fat, it's almost a scientific equation. That doesn't happen NATURALLY. Children aren't that ripped. We aren't born BUFF. Buff is CREATED.

If we take off all the crazy limits and rules with food, and it takes a while to accept that if you are used to psycho dieting- you can start to enjoy food again, in a REASONABLE MANNER and still lose weight and keep it off. This will be unique to all of us-- you have to figure out what works for YOUR body and YOUR metabolism, but without a doubt, if you can slow down and THINK about food, and eat what you want, but eat slowly and only what you NEED, you can break free of psycho dieting and start enjoying life again.

This is what I've been focusing on lately--- getting my MIND back in the right spot about food and eating. I'm really forcing myself to SLOW DOWN when I eat and THINK. I'm sitting down at a table to eat instead of eating food on the run and inhaling it so quickly because I'm rushing that I don't even taste it. 

I'm THINKING about how my dinner can BALANCE out what I ate for lunch, and how lunch can balance out what I ate for breakfast, and how Tuesday can BALANCE out Monday and this week can BALANCE out last week. 

I'm not talking about finding a way to eat donuts and pizza every day. What I am talking about is finding a way to have a donut WHENEVER YOU WANT and to not give it soooo much damn value that you literally go into a binge situation when you taste it, because you've denied yourself for so long. I'm currently having pasta once a week. And yet, I'm being sensible about it. I'm using Trader Joe's Brown Rice pasta (which tastes just like regular) and I measure out 1.5 servings of it, plus I measure a cup of my favorite sauce, and the bit of Parm cheese I put on top. It's like 350 calories. It's yummy. And I don't feel bad about it. 

I'm losing weight. And my workouts are getting better and more consistent (in the # of workouts each week) every week now. MY diet is better, my mindset is better, my workouts are better.....because I'm taking the time TO THINK. (See my little sweatfest vlog below from this evening's workout in my hotel room! BOOYA!)

I haven't been THINKING this all through in the past 2 years. I've been REACTIVE and Knee-Jerking. I've been blindly following 50,000 different paths that were leading me in 50,000 different directions which means - you go nowhere!! 

All that is in the past. I'm hoping that this long-as-heck blog post is helpful to so many of you that have been writing to me saying that you've been going through the same things. It feels awesome to finally figure this all out...and to be on the right track. I simply want to share what I'm learning so you can incorporate the thought process too. Stop that insanity RIGHT NOW!!

DO YOU AGREE?