Food is One of Life’s Greatest Pleasures

Hi, I’m Laura. I am a dietitian who loves baked goods like giant doughy cookies. If you don’t know me yet, well then let’s talk about food, my favorite topic. 

You’ve been so programmed to think that improved health is dependent on restricting food and calories, cutting out foods and food groups, and eating less palatable foods (ugh here we go, salads with grilled chicken for every meal again..).

Most of you are laser focused on weight and numbers and you believe that the way to achieve happiness is to get to a weight you may or may not remember seeing at some point in your life, usually quite a long time ago. 

I will never stop teaching you and trying to convince you that you can and should absolutely enjoy foods and fit all of your favorites in, even if you want to get healthier and lose weight. But weight loss and health do not go hand in hand. If you are restricting and depriving again, it is not only damaging your body and metabolism physically, but it is setting your mental health back even further. A thin-appearing person is not necessarily happy or healthy so try not to compare yourself or think that life will magically be awesome if and when you are at a certain weight. You are SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT and life is SO MUCH MORE valuable than that!

It’s actually healthier to NOT pass up all the delicious treats. Good food is part of a fulfilling life. Instead, you find a way to balance it all out. You see, once you practice consistently healthier habits, you actually want to do them. It isn’t such a struggle when you see how good you feel when you treat yourself right. The back and forth and black and white starts to disappear. You want to feel this way and think this way, like of course I can have that cookie if I want it! I know how hard this sounds to so many of you, but I promise that it’s possible to get to a happy healthy place and eat rainbow cookies sometimes and still feel awesome!