When Fuel Meets Joy by Ash B

Is there such thing at a meal glow up?

Because if there is, this would be a next level one…

Look, there’s nothing with with chicken, fish, brussel sprouts, edamame, and quinoa… (Let’s not talk about the garbage snacks I have here of season-less and sauce-less cucumbers, cardboard crackers, and the driest almonds to ever exist)

In fact I still eat all of those foods… Especially chicken. I eat chicken at least once, if not multiple times a day.

But the issue was back then (about 6 years ago), I thought the ONLY thing that mattered was hitting numbers.

And each of those meals were perfectly portioned for the macros I had set for my 6 month post partum self. (Gotta snap back, right?… Actually no, you don’t have to, but that is a discussion for a different blog post. 🙂 )

No sauces, little seasoning, nothing extra.

Just what I needed.

But guess how many of these meals I actually ate?

Usually three at the most…

Monday – Yes! This is going great!

Tuesday – Okay, not bad, not bad…

Wednesday – *Forcing myself to chew and swallow*

And then someone would order out from work on Thursday and I thought “Screw it. I can’t eat another piece of bland fish and brussel sprouts again today.” and I would go CRAZY. Eating thousands of calories more than I needed because I told myself it was just a break and then I would get back to my terrible meals on Friday.

Pssst, I never did.

And that snowballed into Saturday and Sunday, and making another 5 “blah” lunches for the next week, determined to get back “on track”…

Your brain does some wild shit when you repeatedly eat food that only satisfies one need, and in this case, the only box that the meal prepped food was checking was that it was fuel…

And yes, food is fuel, I get that…

But you know what else food is or can be?

Fun.

Creative.

Celebration.

Adventure.

And goodness friends, when you can FUEL your body with healthy foods that bring you JOY…

That is when some real magic happens.

Because how much easier would it be to stick with a healthy lifestyle if the foods we enjoy got us closer to our goals?

How much easier would it be to eat healthy dinners if we got to be creative while doing it?

How much easier would it be to stop eating when we are full if we knew we could eat something delicious for the next meal… and the one after that… and the one after that… instead of having a “Got to eat this ALL because tomorrow it’s back to fish and edamame.” mindset?

So. Much. Easier.

So much more enjoyable.

(And I might catch some backlash for this last one.)

So much healthier… (I said what I said)

Because it’s not just about having a healthy body, but a healthy mind as well.

I don’t know about you, but restricting the foods I consume, has never led to healthy thoughts.

So let’s do it, friends.

Let’s eat foods we like even though they may not line up perfectly with our numbers every day.

Let’s try new foods and add some sauce because variety is a game changer.

Let’s give ourselves a more balanced life than chicken/rice/veggies through the week and a then posting a picture eating a piece of pizza on social on Friday night with a #balance, knowing damn good and well that we have been spiraling since Thursday and it will continue until Monday, when we will start the cycle all over again.

Let’s make our fuel meet joy and really start living.

Ash B