Flex your MENTAL muscle!

So many times when people begin to eat healthy and really try to change their eating habits, they get to a point where their body complains, "If you don’t want to feed me what I want (carbs) then I don’t want to eat at all!"

This is where your cerebral fitness,, not just your physical fitness, is put to the test!

Right now, your mental muscle is what needs developing and strengthening. You are going to have to do this eventually - now is the time to do it!! Your body has gone through years of being fed carbs - it knows if it "calls" and says it needs carbs, you will "answer" it if it tries hard enough. You have to break this cycle. Is it easy? No. Not at all. Is it doable? Yes. But it takes some work.

First, change how you talk to yourself and others about food. Challenge your thinking. So much can be changed in just the way we speak to ourselves. Instead of saying, "Oh I am sooo craving bread/pasta/choclate right now" change that thinking to "Oh, I am so glad I choose to fuel my body with these amazing healthy foods! I will feel so good when I eat this!" Seriously. I want you to say this out loud to yourself and to someone in the immediate vicinity (preferably to someone you know and love or mocking may ensue!) Is it goofy? Of course it is. Does it work? You'd be surprised. This really isn't some mental mumbo jumbo. If you say something enough, out loud, you are going to start to believe it yourself.

Second, you are stronger than you think you are! Often times we see ourselves as powerless, that we "have no control" over want our body "wants." Right now, you need to shut your body up and let it know who's boss! Because, really? It's not your body talking. It's your brain. It's that emotional part that has always eaten and loved carbs and the feeling it gets when it eats them. For me, it's that little 4th-grade Ashli that got teased for being bigger than the other kids. It's the middle school Ashli that hid out in her closet to eat Reeses peanut butter cups when that jerk in ninth grade routinely called her "ThunderThighs." That's how I used to comfort myself - with those carb/sugar heavy foods. I was convinced I was "big-boned" and could never lose weight. But when I finally, FINALLY began to let myself believe and hope I could...those Reese's didn't look that satisfying anymore!

Refined carbohydrates have been shown to act in the same way as illicit drugs do - essentially by taking similar metabolic pathways. Your brain actually produces chemicals, like tryptophan and dopamine, that give you a "feel-good" high. This feeling is fleeting but your brain wants to convince you that it needs it! Right now, your brain needs a makeover! When we listen to our bodies, and I mean really listen, we find out that they are quite self-regulating. If we can get past the "I need carbs right now or I'm going to bite my spouse's head off" (not literally), we begin to sense what nutrients our body needs and we can begin to satisfy those. The hardest part is getting through that initial withdrawal phase.

You control EVERYTHING you put in your body. You are as strong as you let yourself be. If your body (brain) says, "Don't feed me unless it's carbs!!" You say, "Well, that's too darn bad - I have goals and will reach them - with or without you (preferably with you :)"

You can do this, but it is all up to you. You are responsible for how you respond when the cravings act up, when you are feeling tired, when things don't go right, or your spouse wants take-out. You make those choices that affect you every day. You have the responsibility to own up to them and accept them and to help you hit your goals!

Your body knows you can do this - it manifests this everytime you flex your mental muscle and make positive changes. YOU (and your brain) just need to realize this too!!