As many of you know I recently completed a 10 Day  Cleanse. I took on this challenge for 10 days to cleanse my body but cleanse my mind from unneccesary noise and distraction.

With my mind clearer, I had room for many epiphanies about food and I’d love to share the self talk that got me through the 10 days.

1. Withdrawal is real. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that food isn’t an addiction. We are all functional food addicts and it’s ok to admit. The reason this is important is because we all go through phases were we are too dependent on something, for me it was coffee, for you it may be chocolate or soda. It easy to tell ourselves we can stop at any time to get healthy but it’s not that easy.

2. We waste so many calories in the face of hunger. If you are anything like me, hunger scares the crap out of you. The second a hunger pang hits We break into a small sweat and literally think eating is a matter of life or death. News flash…It’s not. Even gathering your thoughts for 1 minute can stop you from finding yourself knee deep in pretzel thins with 1 tbsp of hummus per dip merely twenty minutes before your dinner reservation. It’s easy to say you will plan ahead but it’s hard and unrealistic everyday. 

3. Unschedule every appointment you have to eat. It seems like every single plan I make with friends, co-workers or significant others involves food. Let’s meet for dinner, let’s meet for drinks, let’s meet for coffee, stop by my place to catch up while we polish off a container of natural peanut butter cups from Trader Joes that I picked up because you were coming over. Because of this It often feels like the second we say we want to lose weight or eat healthier everyone can meet for margaritas and Mexican food. You feel doomed to fail before you start because you have a social life. 

4. Remove the word “bored” from your vocabulary. This scenario arises often, It’s four o’ clock, you have a couple more tasks to complete before your dinner reservations  at 7. These tasks aren’t time sensitive which means you have zero intention of completing them. You’ve already refreshed Facebook and Instagram, twice, which means you are officially bored. So you eat to pass the time, to give yourself something to do. There are one million and one things on everyone’s to do list. We aren’t bored.

5. You will eat again tomorrow, go to bed. I often find myself close to bedtime walking to the pantry and back to the couch a dozen times before I settle on a spoonful of peanut butter or a box of puffins cereal. But it’s 10 pm and my alarm is set for 6 am. The only thing between me and my next realistic meal is sleep. So get in bed, you’re not hungry. Tomorrow is closer than you think. 

6. Your period will come the second you want to lose weight, accept that. The struggle is real ladies, but we have to stop using Aunt Flow as an excuse to run so far off course that google maps cannot pin our location.

7. Let’s stop saying “it’s all or nothing” because it never nothing, it’s always all.” This attitude historically has gotten us in trouble. The minute we slip up we let the whole day go to shit. Never start a plan that doesn’t allow you to be a normal human being. No matter how many times you order a salad with your burger you are going to want to let yourself eat a couple sweet potato fries from your husbands plate. That’s actually perfectly fine. You are still on plan. 

8. If you feel out of control, you are. Reel yourself back in. I don’t want to speak for you, but I’d assume that most of us have blacked out in college. It’s funny now, wasn’t back then. But we don’t need some fraternity’s punch to lose a couple hours of our life. Let’s talk about the fact that I black out weekly on Australian licorice in the time I walk from checkout to my car at Target. I eat so fast in an attempt to end it before it happens. The bag is empty and I seriously feel like I blacked out. If a licorice bag is eaten in the car and no one sees the wrappers, is it still eaten? Yes.

9. Change the rules as you go. No I’m sorry, I can’t drink a shake everyday for the rest of my life. Plans are great! They get us started, they give us direction. They work. I believe in them. But not every part of them. That’s why we should change the part we don’t like. I started my 10 days with the intention to not drink any Starbucks. The morning of Day 8 I was actually foaming at the mouth. I contemplated giving up on this whole thing which I convinced myself was so stupid. Makes sense? Give up on everything for the one small part I need. Rewind, I had the cup of coffee and stayed on my cleanse in every other way. 

10. We have to wait a week for the next episode of our favorite show. The time it takes to get from breakfast to lunch on the first day of a new diet feels like you are walking up the down escalator. It’s an eternity to see our favorite foods at the finish line. But you can wait, the same way you waited for the next episode of Grey’s Anatomy. 

And number 11… Keep going (see what I did there?) refer back to number 7 and remind yourself what you did. Keep 90% of it the same! It’s possible when you give yourself wiggle room. 

Thanks for taking this journey with me!  I posted my before and after on my Instagram @mondaydieter