Feeling Deprived

In my early days of being on Take Shape for Life's 5&1 plan, I had days when I really struggled  with feeling deprived and looking at all of the things that I "couldn't have."  I hate feeling deprived (honestly, does anybody really like feeling that way??) and had I stayed in that mindset, I never would have gotten to my goal. 

Thankfully, over time I began to embrace the reality that I COULD have those things - if I wanted to and chose to have them.  I was a grown-up and free to make those choices.  I also understood that there was something I wanted more than the food - I wanted to get to my goal and have a thin, healthy body.  Because I wanted that, and I really did want that, I made the choice to not eat certain things.  I've written a lot about the need to make secondary choices to support our primary choice, and I keep going back to this because it is SO important!

If you have a mindset that thinks of this program as being all about deprivation - can't have that and can't have this - your journey will be a lot more of a struggle.  None of us likes to feel deprived.  We are hardwired to take care of ourselves and feeling deprived for very long often leads to resentment and anger.  Those feelings are hard to carry with us for weeks or months at a time and staying in a deprivation mindset often leads to eventually going off plan because we feel almost driven to "be good to ourselves."

However, if we've made the primary choice to get healthy, then we will view the secondary choices we make - including staying on program - from a different perspective.  We will understand that these choices are steps on a ladder, with each choice bringing us that much closer to what we really want.  We will embrace these choices are just that - the choices we are choosing to make.  When I was on 5&1, I adopted the mindset of "I can have anything I want any time I want, but I am choosing to eat 5&1 instead of that because 5&1 will get me where I want to go and that won't."  That thinking kept me out of feeling deprived all the time and it was one of the things that helped keep me focused and relatively cheerful all the way to my goal (I said relatively . . . !).

You don't have to stay on plan and you don't have to reach your goal.  You really don't!  The choice is yours, and if you've made the choice to stay on plan and get to your goal (and I hope you have!), then embrace this as your choice, then continue to choose wisely :-)