Today I had an epiphany at the supermarket, precisely in front of the shelf with convenience salads and vegetables – all washed, cut, prepped, ready for the consumer.
A bag of grated carrots caught my attention, I reached out for it, but then I heard my mind saying “no, you can grate carrots yourself and also these aren’t even organic”. I hesitated for a moment and let that sink in, but at the end I still grabbed them, because then the other voice in my head, call it intuition or in this case – since we are talking about food – gut feeling, said: “you do crave these carrots now, so get them. If you don’t get them you most likely will end up not eating anything fresh at all until the evening and reach out to cookies and Co.”
That second voice was right and I decided to listen to it.
And on the way home I thought about this and why it is a sad fact, that we can be our own worst enemies when we don’t listen to what our intuition or our body tells us, when we put more ethical or moral reasons before the needs of our body, with its trillions of cells.
I am all in favor of buying organic as much as I can and also usually prefer to buy veggies and salads in their original state, where I wash and prep them myself, but all that convenience food in the healthy parts of a supermarket or grocery store is really a salvation for those emergency moments when we are tired, when we don’t want to cook and when we are so much at risk to grab the next best ready made thing, throw a frozen pizza in the oven, eat bread and cheese or order out. These prepped veggies are also a salvation for people who are not (yet? ;-)) into cooking, since it’s quick and easy to throw a healthy meal together.
Yes of course supporting health food stores rather than big supermarket chains is probably better, but I find it’s all relative. It’s better for me to eat more salads and vegetables, period. So I do the best I can, sometimes that’s the easy and fast way. And I feel so much better for it.
Just because I am a Health Coach it does not mean that I navigate the world of food and temptations without my fair share of issues and cravings. But I decided to work with the cravings rather than against them. I decided to become my own best friend first of all and stop being my worst enemy and that changes everything.
My new mantra is “Do the best you can” or the 80/20% rule
With that mantra it suddenly all feels friendlier and easier, there is some new lightness around every action I take. And the moments when I crave bread or chocolate or cookies get less when I do act towards myself with kindness and listen to what I really need. Then I can actually perceive what I really need instead. It might be a break from sitting at the desk and stretch a bit. Or drink some water and breathe some fresh air by an open window. Maybe to calm down with a 5 minute meditation or have a cup of tea. Or it might be that I need all the goodness that is in carrots, even if they are wrapped in plastic and have been shredded already yesterday… For me in that moment they are still the best I can do and not so bad!
Do you have moments where you are your worst enemy and much too hard on yourself? And how have you transformed those and become your own best friend?
I’d love to hear what your experience is!
Lots of love
Martina
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