To French Toast or Not to French Toast?

For my birthday this year I was treated to breakfast at one of my favorite seaside restaurants.

I find that when I’m in a birthday frame of mind, I feel that I should eat and do what I want.

Even if it is outside of the list of things that keep my wellbeing intact. So I ordered the French toast!

It was freshly made using large slices of artesian bread and house made whipped cream. It was outstanding. The chemical rush of sugar overload was surging through my body and mind. At about the half way point, I started to feel nauseous. So nauseous that I was afraid that one more bite would result in literally needing to vomit.

I stopped eating, and the sugary euphoria started to be replaced with sluggishness and a feeling of regret that I had ordered it.

The small child inside me still believes that sugar it the ultimate treat. “She” had ordered breakfast. Not the health-conscious woman seeking vitality and a clear mind. Herein lies the conflict. At this stage in our lives, seeking pleasure in the very temporary euphoria of a sugar rush will derail us from all the things that are important to us.

People often get depressed or sad over the idea of giving up dietary guilty pleasures for health or weight loss reasons. They feel that one of the greatest joys in life is being taken away. The second their willpower is compromised, they go in the polar opposite direction and binge on the foods that they know will hurt them.

We need to redirect our focus on the pleasures that are healthy and life sustaining. It feels good to have a clear mind and to have our weight at a healthy range. It is long term gratification at its best. Rather than a brief momentary boost in happy chemicals that we have to pay for almost immediately afterwards.

The idea that carbs and sugar are a great source of happiness mostly ends in regret and feeling bad that we have fallen off track. This keeps us at odds with ourselves which feels very self-defeating.

So what do we do?

It is important to realize that sugar and carb cravings come from a certain palate. Eating any certain way creates cravings for more of the same. You may have found that during times of trying dieting that your sugar craving diminished.

While I indulge in the super sugary on occasion, there are many processed foods that are no longer on my radar as meal options. These are foods I ate all the time during my childhood, teens and young adult years.

This shows that there is a natural evolution process with food that is in alignment with our raising consciousness. This is why I think it will get easier to eat healthy. In the meantime,

we need to bring conscious awareness to the moments when thinking that gorging our systems with nutritional garbage is a good idea. This will release the cycle of self-betrayal and defeat.

I am not saying that it is wrong to have sweets but we are eating too much for the wrong reasons. Most of the people who attempt to lose weight through dieting fall off pretty quickly and never reach their goals. This is leading to some pretty serious health problems not to mention low self-esteem.

Start with small redirection and making conscious decisions during meal time. Take a moment to notice how energized and good you feel after a salad. Allow yourself to have treats but place a limit of no more than 20 percent of your diet. The next thing you know, you will feel and look your best.

By redefining what is “good”; healthy foods lead to a healthy body, mind and spirit. This way, we can have our cake and eat it too!