Weekend mornings are magical. On both Saturdays and Sundays you wake up and feel as if the world is your oyster. All responsibility dissipates and anxiety simmers away. That’s how I feel this Sunday morning, sitting at the kitchen table of my family’s beach house. I decided to let my husband sleep in. That sentence makes me feel powerful. In actuality I just turned off our alarm and made the executive decision that we are going to skip church so he can sleep. To keep quiet, I ventured a mile down the road to get us coffee and breakfast on the island’s most treasured establishment… Wawa.  {Disclaimer: If you are reading this and you’re from the East Coast, you know the perfection of a cup of Wawa Coffee when you are down the shore}.

I feel pretty passionate that your coffee drink defines you as a person. It’s a character trait. I have brown hair with hazel eyes and I’m a 20 ounce kinda gal; 1/3 french vanilla roast coffee & 2/3  low fat french vanilla Cappuccino from the machine. My husband, he’s a 16 ounce guy; black regular roast with just a touch of original Cappuccino from the machine.  Sadly, my coffee is roughly 4 weight watchers points, his is barely 1. Not fair.

If you have ever been on Weight Watchers, even for the shortest amount of time, you can look at any food anywhere and give it a point value. It’s second nature. While others look at calories, fat or ingredients, Team Weight Watchers sees points. I’m a huge proponent of Weight Watchers, been on and off it since I was 15. That’s why I am so quick to give our coffee a point value.

This morning, as I’m happily enjoying my 4 point coffee and 0 point pre-sliced mango pack while my husband sleeps, I caught myself mid-point calculation and thought, Am I even on Weight Watchers right now? Am I eating this zero point mango because it’s zero points or am I actually truly enjoying this breakfast choice? Did I choose Mango for myself instead of a donut, muffin or cream cheese stuffed pretzel because I like mango or because I am supposed to eat mango? Am I on a diet? Am I eating dieting foods because I am on a diet?! My mind started racing. I actually could not remember if I was on a diet.

I stopped my mind from spinning and ate another piece of mango slowly, took note, enjoyed the taste, flavor and texture. It truly was satisfying. I felt good when I was done eating it too. My body smiled. In that moment I decided to solve this mystery. Am I always on a diet or do I just like “diet foods” – aka healthy foods. If I truly just like healthy foods, this world became an easier place.

What is a diet? By definition, A  diet is: the sum of food consumed by a person.  (That definition says nothing about restriction)

Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual makes when choosing what foods to eat. However, the word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons .

Ok so even Wikipedia is confused.

What if being on a diet means eating whatever we want?!

New definition of diet: Listening to our bodies and choosing exactly what we crave in the moment and after the last bite, whether it’s mango or a donut, never feeling guilty. 

Before every bite think, will this make me feel good? What is it that my body and mind are telling me to eat? After all these years of eating what we are “supposed to eat,” I actually think it’s healthier food we crave. While sugar and carbs were our first love affair, that relationship was like many of our first loves.  Shallow, empty with a heart-break ending. We feel as if we were settling with kale. But let’s love the one we’re with. I think we all owe fruits and vegetables an apology. Along with salad, grilled chicken and greek yogurt. We don’t need you, we want you. When we eat what we want, we aren’t on a diet. We are normal. And maybe losing a little weight in the process.