inspiration in the strangest places

last night i was putting my son to bed and i let him pick out one book of his choosing.  he picked one that has become one of his favorites - Bernstein Bears and Too Much Junkfood.  i'm not sure what draws him to this book, it may be the pictures of all the systems of the body and all the candy but nonetheless i read it to him.

in the story mama bear notices the cubs getting a little chubby and snacking too much.  so she explains that they aren't eating any junkfood for a while and instead eating healthy snacks.  the whole bear family run into the cubs doctor at the grocery store while shopping for good healthy food (surprise surprise) and she invites them to her office.  so they go and she explains what foods are healthy and how they help the body. as the cubs are leaving her office she adds that they should exercise to trim off the extra inches they had added from all that snacking.

reading this story with my three year old helped me reframe the way i've been looking at all this health/weight loss stuff.  so i thought - the cubs pediatrician told them that all the systems of their body rely on the nourishment they get from healthy food.  she wanted them to eat well because its good for them not because they have to lose weight.  she then added that adding exercise is healthy AND will help them lose a little cub chub.  i actually thought for the first time that i could think about my exercise as the means to losing weight and the food part as simply something to keep all my systems working efficiently.

i know this sounds like a very rudimentary understanding of weight loss and healthy eating but i think i've always put so much pressure on myself about eating "right" that when i don't stick perfectly to my plan i punish myself for days/weeks/or months by eating horribly.  so now if i think - well that wasn't good for my body but everything in balance is ok maybe i won't beat myself up so much about it.  how do you tell yourself its ok to indulge every once in a while??