2. Want to share your story about dieting robs you of valuable parts of your life. I want to hear them.
It's a sunday morning, a little overcast,and a perfect day for a cycle. It still amazes me that once upon a time I would cycle only to burn calories, nowadays I cycle because I love to feel the wind on my face, I love to see how the perfect rows of grapes whizz by as if a slideshow, I love the freedom of just moving my legs to no specified rhythm. It still amazes me that the simple act of cycling can transport me so far because when I did it to burn calories all I felt was the effort of it.
This sunday morning I set off, I can smell freedom as my wheels cover the miles - I feel happy, I don't feel any effort. I round a corner and am greeted by a sea of wild blackberries, just begging to be plucked and savoured. In my cycle to burn calorie days' I wouldn't have noticed them much less contemplated ever stopping. Cycling to burn calories meant you pumped your legs as hard as you could, stopping would never have been an option, it would have slowed my metabolism. But now, those wild black berries beckoned, begged me to stop and savor their deliciousness. And so I did..
I popped my purple bike up against the fence and plucked one black blackberry at a time, popping them into my mouth and devouring their dark fruitiness. They were mouth-stoppingly delectable! Delicious!
They filled every corner of my mouth in a way that left me feeling full where so few berries normally would not have. Had I been on one of my many fastest weight loss diets I could never have stopped so spontaneously - never! That would have been forbidden, something to be ashamed of, to hide.
Now I could stand at the roadside, oblivious to the curious stares of passer-byers and not give a continental whether they saw my delight. Dieting always made me feel guilty about eating, but now I celebrate the joy of eating - I don't care if you see the red of berry stain on my fingers nor if it dribbles over my lips. Dieting would have robbed me of this experience, but no more.
I live far more authentically.
Dieting only narrowed and restricted my life, it closed down valuable parts of my spontaneity, it made me feel less alive. But the time to love, love and laugh is NOW.
Do you wish that you could live in a joy-filled body and re-parent yourself so that you felt differently about food, exercise and your body?
Here's to never again allowing diets to rob you of joyous living.