CHOICES

A seven leter word.


I thought the start of a new month would be a good time for a new topic... January appeared to be a much more difficult month for many of us than even December and the holidays were... we've all found ourselves making some less than perfect choices in what we eat and how we move... so I thought a perfect topic to start this month might be " CHOICES..

After all, many things in life present us with very easy choices.. right from wrong, etc.. .. most choices are routine for us and don't actually require a conscious decision on our part because our individual belief systems have been determined for years.. But when it comes to food choices... while we all know logically that losing weight and becoming healthy is "simply" about choosing good healthy foods to put in our mouths.... we assume it should be no different... after all we know broccoli is better for us than ice cream... we're quite smart after all....so its just a matter of simply making good choices, right?

And yet.... we suddenly reach for that chocolate bar .. we know its not a good choice, and that altho it will taste good, we know afterwards we will stare at the empty wrapper and start with the recriminations - the negative ramifications we predicted before we ate it start the minute we see the empty wrapper.. so why do we still make the food choices that we told ourselves we wouldn't, that we warned ourselves about and that we know are going to make us feel like crap afterwards. WHY isn't it a simple choice???

I don't have the answer of course - but I've been giving it some thought because its frustrating to me.. if I can make good choices about everything else (or most everything else lol) why is it so hard in this area.. whether we pick up the phone to order a pizza, or shove the spoon into the ice cream, or accept the offered cake.. we are making a deision.. a choice.. and a lot of health "experts " still seem to think its simply a matter of willpower - that if you make an "unhealthy" decision.. you simply don't want it bad enough.

I personally think that's a load of crap. and yes.. .. I do realize I am not a health expert ....) But I think there's a whole lot more to it... from all I've learned being here on MFP.and from all of you and the rest of the MFP peeps.. . I think there are a thundred reasons we find it hard to make good choices sometimes... and they range from physical things like lacking some dietary thing (like those salt cravings maybe??) to lack of sleep some days, to the social peer pressure we face every day (thinking people are rolling their eyeballs when you refuse a piece of cake they've slaved over?) A lot of our world revolves around social gatherings and food as we've discussed - and I think sometimes we may even fear rejection from our friends (or maybe disapproval is a better word?) if we don't chose to have something. ) As well, as Gail mentioned before.... there's the attention our choices can bring in social situations.. people around you hear your friend trying to coax you into the cake, or commenting "are you on a diet again"?) and you give in because there's suddenly too much attention on you and you have to make it go away ... ? I think part of it too is addiction... we all know now that sugar is just as addictive as cocaine so it s no different trying to make the choice to not eat it than any other addict has making that choice.. and stress... we all know stress raises cortisol levels and coritsol increases our actual physiological craving for sweets.

I personally truly believe there are many reasons that we find making GOOD food choices so difficult, and that we need to recognize that every choice we make IS hard... and to celebrate every good choice we make. And to NOT rip ourselve apart and beat on ourselves when we do make an unhealthy choice - I'm not saying don't worry about bad choices... and not condoning using it as an "excuse" ... I just think that we need to acknowledge that making good choices ISN'T easy... there are a lot of factors working inside us against those good choices we WANT to make.. and that we need to give ourselves credit that changing some of our choices will require conscious decision and hard work on our part.... and that every time we make that choice for something healthy, we deserve to say YAY ME! Remind ourselves that we did GOOD, and that we deserve to be proud of our accomplishment and we can shout it from the rooftops because IT AIN'T EASY BABY.. BUT WE ARE DOING IT!! One snack, one meal... one choice at a time!!