Why you should indulge every day

You may be better off eating ice cream every day.

Most of my private clients have questions about what is the best option for them... whole wheat vs. gluten free vs. sprouted grain? Full fat dairy vs low fat? Low sugar vs. honey? We want to know the answers and we absolutely should understand solid nutrition info. And I love reading the research and sharing best health practices.

However...

Sometimes seeking the "best" can lead to an assumtion that to be healthy (or thin, or to have a good relationship with food) we need to get rid of ALL the junk and eat as clean as possible all the time.

Or that we need to maintain the "image" of perfection.

I came across this scenario with a client this week, who admitted to herself and to me that her slow progress is connected to ice cream binges.

She's so determined to be "perfect" that her body is begging her to go a little crazy. And each time she tells herself this is the LAST time she's going to eat ice cream so she eats more than she'd like to admit. She has a few "perfect" days and then downs the ice cream again.

This is not an uncommon problem. For her, having a small scoop of ice cream every day (in the company of others) for a few weeks can take away the power of the secret ice cream binge.

And then she can turn it down some days knowing that she may choose it again tomorrow.

She can learn to say, yes I CAN have ice cream (or chips, or french fries or whatever your "bad" food may be) rather than always telling herself NO.

We all need to incorporate treats of some kind! I don't think I say that often enough. To progress, we cannot feel deprived or restricted.

If we can get refined sugar completely out of our diet, awesome! Have date sweetened desserts or some of my family's favorite ice cream alternatives.

Sometimes we need to have the real thing and know that we're actually doing our minds (and therefore our bodies) more good than harm.

What you do consistently the majority of the time is what matters. In the 90/10 or 80/20 rule, there is wiggle room every day to include something small that might not fit your description of the perfect diet. Use it!

I'd love to hear from you... is there a food you struggle so much to resist that you are sometimes led to overdo it? Do you see some foods as "bad"?

What "treats" do you incorporate into your day?