Indulging. Overindulging. What is the difference between the two? I know that I have been lucky to never really struggle with my weight, I have good genes and the motivation to work out to thank for that, but I am trying to be more aware of my diet now that I am getting older. My metabolism is bound to be slowed one of these days, so I try to be conscious of what I eat. I hate hearing celebrities and models say they never eat chocolate. Fried foods. A bag of Skittles. I mean seriously, where is the fun if all you ever eat is grilled chicken and lettuce and wash it down with some green smoothie? Over half of my social outings consist of meeting in a restaurant, trying out new desserts or the loaded nachos. Is there really no other way to achieve a tight bod unless we throw all the foods we love out the window?
I wasn’t buying it. Not only do my taste buds clash tremendously with healthy foods, I have a sweet tooth, plain and simple. Mix that in with the fact that I can’t cook, and eating out becomes a staple in my life. So could I really get myself to eat better with all these obstacles in my way?
I have posted before on how I switched up my diet recently, drinking fruit smoothies for breakfast and replacing Kit-Kats with yogurt. But I found that the more I forced myself not to eat the things I love, the more I desperately craved for them. I needed to find a balance, a way that I could enjoy the best of both worlds with starving myself, or finding myself bingeing on unhealthy foods because I missed them so much.
The answer came one day when a co-worker brought it donuts for breakfast. I flew to the conference center and grabbed the biggest sprinkle donut, preparing to demolish the thing in five minutes. I took my first and closed my eyes with happiness, a donut over my strawberry-banana smoothie tasted a thousand times better. I took another bite, glaring at the bottle on my desk filled with my smoothie. It glared back. A third bite, and I stopped. What if I only ate half the donut, then drank my smoothie? I would still be able to indulge my sweet tooth, but not over indulge on a sugary breakfast.
And viola, the solution to quit overindulging stared me in the face. It’s okay to continue eating the things I wanted to eat, as long as I wasn’t going overboard. All things are good moderation, and I believe this includes sweets. Instead of banning myself from that bag of Skittles, I will eat a handful, then put the bag back in my desk. When hunger strikes again, I will get out my yogurt, instead of reaching for more Skittles. It’s not easy all the time, nothing really ever is, but I feel that with consciously being aware over indulging, the less likely I am to do it. So next time you reach for that piece of cake, ask yourself: are you indulging, or OVERindulging?
