Juicy Morsel - Do you cheat?

Do you cheat?
When there are no rules, there is no cheating (and no guilt).

Last week I staffed a healthy eating booth at 2 workplace health fairs. I love staffing healthy eating booths. Talking with people about food is why I went into the field of nutrition. The questions that people ask are fascinating to me.

Apparently one of the most fascinating things for the people I talk to is what I eat (hence this blog). Last week I was asked over and over again, what diet I follow: Atkins, South Beach, the Zone. This is nothing new for me.

My answer: I don't follow a diet. I listen to my body, focus on foods closest to the way nature made them, and foods that I enjoy. Deprivation has no place in my world of healthy eating!

But, last week I was asked something new, something that left me speechless. After explaining how I choose to eat, the individual asked me: "Do you ever cheat?"

Cheat. Cheat? Because I don't "diet", because I don't have hard and fast "rules", cheating is a foreign concept. I cannot cheat, because I choose not to ride the dieting rollercoaster.

Yet I know that for most people, their relationship with food includes cheating. They are on the dieting rollercoaster - start a diet, cheat, feel guilty, go back on the diet, fall off completely, pay no attention to what they are putting in their mouth, feel guilty, start a new diet. Repeat.

The dieting rollercoaster is ripe with guilt, experts, saints, and sinners.

While I recognize that it is difficult, I say be a rebel. Choose to get off the dieting rollercoaster.

Listen to your body.

Eat food that you enjoy AND makes your body feel good!