The Irresistible Desire That Does Not Exist

I will be discussing the necessary steps to enjoy and benefit from “going off your diet/plan/program/dogma/and other mental constructs that we create and try to live up to”. I assure you it is beneficial to go off your plan. You have to get past your reaction that you failed, and observe the way you feel bodily, mentally, and emotionally. How is this done and what is the benefit?  

“I can resist everything except temptation.” -Oscar Wilde

When we get on a plan/diet/program we muster up our resolve and push off into territories that we have never been to before, hoping for results that we are not inherently sure may happen. In short, this is the hero’s journey. We start out being very disciplined and focused, despite our best efforts we may forget and eat food that we are supposed to be off of. Habits are hard to break! It is a waste of time to beat yourself up over this very small detail. I find it best to observe the way you have changed you’re eating and how it is not just a process solely on discipline but conscious work as well. When we witness this process through ourselves it becomes, in the grandest sense, a pathway to self discovery. Being upset with ourselves is the unconscious behavior- it is too much energy doing very little for us. It leaves us the same-powerless, unconscious, and not worthy to succeed belief. It also shows us that the process is a little more difficult to do. These things will happen at first and it really is just the things you can expect to happen.

You do not know how much you rely on/eat the food you are trying to avoid until you try to avoid it! The next surprise is this, if you are trying to eliminate processed foods, you will see that they are really not a food, but a way to manage the day. Do not be surprised that you depend on these foods and that you may feel a little overwhelmed. In addition to that minor “crisis”, processed food elimination will give you withdrawal symptoms. This will be physically, mentally, and emotionally tough. You may get “sick”, tired, “brain-fogged”, fatigued, experience joint pain, skin issues, etc. You must remember that the avoidance of the food is not the cause of these symptoms, it is the detoxification of these processed foods that are the cause. Imagine if you had sand blowing in your home all day with no letting up. You would probably reach a point where you would constantly clean it up and put it out of sight. Then imagine the sand ceases to come in, you would take that opportunity to get rid of the pile of sand. When you are trying to get rid of the sand there is too much, it fills the trash cans and the garbage pick up is a week away. You have no way to completely get rid of it! If this is your body, you will overwhelm the detoxification routes and then the sand, that was hidden from sight that is now irritating the tissues. So drink water, know you are on the right track, and carry on you marvelous hero!

“I learned to be with myself rather than avoiding myself with limiting habits; I started to be aware of my feelings more, rather than numb them.” -Judith Wright

If you would like to read more from Judith Wright visit: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/judith_wright

Now, when you are crushing this diet/plan/program, you can be darted, knocked out for 48 hours, dropped off in the middle of the week and you still can stay on track-you will, more than likely and feel great! You will be so into the fact you are killing the program that you may forget why you are doing it. Then, through fate, the stars or any possible reason, you try a “offending food”. You then, find out why you are on the program better than you have ever known! This is the time when you cannot believe how bad you feel after eating the previously eliminated food. In fact, you will feel such strong symptoms, that in many cases, you have never experienced before. You will probably think you contracted Ebola, arthritis or a flu. If this happens to you, it is the best thing that could of ever happen! You know, see the villain in broad daylight. This is why going off diet is a benefit to you. You must not get so involved with being perfect. You must become more involved in understanding that you have the ability to be the steward of your health. In fact, it as always and will always be that way. You must know that it was you, taking the risk of getting off the foods you thought you loved, that gave your body the time to recover from foods that have stressed it for a lifetime. Before the program your body was so overwhelmed with the intolerances that it could not express itself with quick and strong symptoms, to let you know that it did not agree with the foods in a timely matter.  

I have had patients become mad at me when they have such strong symptoms after they reintroduce the food that they have been avoiding. Their initial thoughts are that now they are more intolerant to the foods than before, this is not so. My best explanation to them is that their body is now cleaned out from the foods that have been detrimental to their health and now can ramp up a stronger reaction to the foods than before. This is good because now the body is healthy enough to respond, where before the symptoms were more nebulus and chronic and hard to clear. Knowing how your body responds in a healthier state is the real gift.  

Once you have experienced this you are on the right track and have hit a new level in your health. Now you will be able to put the pieces together easier in the future when you start to have symptoms, instead of thinking you are sick. Now you have the ability to look at what you ate and determine to a better degree if you are sick or reacting to what you ate. This is the gift!  

So now you can go on or off diet and play the game. Pick your battles and prepare for the outcomes. This is how you want to go off your eating:

1. Go big for one day and be clean for the others. Your body will respond better with a binge on one day than a little off a few days in a row. It’s not the amount that is more important than your body’s reaction.
2. Go off on a good day. The best time to indulge are good days like vacations, holidays, special occasions or getting good news. Bad food and bad emotions are too much together.
3. Know which supplements to take to augment the recovery.
4. Drink more water than you are used to on cheat days.
5. Get back on track soon but do not be surprised if you take longer to get back on track. Your relationship to the food has changed and noticed the mental chess and emotional drama you use to get back on track. Getting back on track is another art form.

I hope this helps your hero’s journey. I wish you the best, keep it up and enjoy the ride!

“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”  -Mae West