One of the best things about creating real peace with food is the weight that’s lifted around having to be perfect.
Creating a lasting, peaceful, successful relationship with food means you don’t have to get every step “correct” or stay within a rigid set of lines that don’t feel like you. You can’t ever “ruin it.”
Peace with food includes grace, and learning from mistakes. It may include times when you meet your expectations better than others, but also a balance that means it all evens out in the end (in a good way).
Peace with food means that the next step you take always counts, your next step can always be positive, and you’ve never lost your way – you’ve just stepped a bit off the path you want to be on.
The most difficult thing about creating peace with food is finding your path – the path that fits you – in the first place.
We get so many messages about what that path is supposed to be, and it’s common to have a really judgmental voice in our head telling us what we “should” be doing – a lot of the time.
That’s not peaceful.
Finding your path – the one that fits you, and the one that you actually want to stay on – that’s a process. It involves trying things out, stepping outside your comfort zone, and crafting the habits, routines, and ways of thinking that help you thrive.
When you have the strategies in place that allow you to live your days without reaching for food –
To calm you
To destress
To comfort
To fill in the gaps, or reward you, or to numb an emotion…
Then you have peace with more than food – you have peace in your life.
Contrary to popular belief, an imperfect, peaceful path can yield tremendous results. I shared the story of Claudia in my recent Master Class. You can hear about the process she used to switch her thinking from “my eating has to be perfect, or I’ve failed” to imperfection that worked for her. You can check out the replay of the class here, until the end of the week.
Your challenge:
Ask yourself where perfectionism might be getting you stuck, or might be slowing down your success.
Do you procrastinate or avoid taking positive steps because you don’t believe you can succeed? Do you feel overwhelmed by the big, “perfect” plan that you believe is required, if you want to see results? Do you get too hungry and then overeat and then overeat some more because your perfectionist tells you that you’ve “blown it”?
Perfectionism is the enemy of progress, and it’s definitely the enemy of creating lasting peace with food.
This week, I challenge you to commit to moving imperfectly forward. Let go of the past and make your present step one that feeds you well.
Talk soon,
