PRETENDING!

I'm struck by the power of the MIND.

The other night, for example, I was watching an old Jerry Lewis/Dean Martin movie called 'Artists and Models'. The movie isn't one of his best, in my opinion, but it did have a very entrancing scene in which Jerry and Dean sit down to dinner...and they have like, NO money so they have only a single solitary BEAN for dinner.

And Jerry eats his bean like it's a BANQUET. He goes through all these motions...salt and peppering it, tucking his napkin in, licking his lips, cutting his single solitary bean into two tiny pieces, so carefully....and then he pretends to open a bottle of champagne, and then he chews and swallows the half of a bean like it's a huge mouthful, and pours ketchup on the other half....it's hysterical.
He makes a huge meal out of a single bean because that's all he has, and he's going to ENJOY it!
(later on he's 'rewarded'....the guy upstairs throws his steak away and somehow Jerry winds up with it...and now he's actually EATING a huge steak and he calls to Dean, who's in bed, to share it, but of course Dean thinks he's still pretending and so refuses to believe it's a real steak....consequently Jerry gets to eat the entire steak himself...LOL...)


Anyway, it illustrates so clearly the power of the MIND. The power of suggestion and of 'how we look at things' can make all the difference in the world.

It's all ... 'how you look at it'! 

You can view this plan as 'depriving yourself' or you can view it as 'finally eating right and loving yourself to give it the best nutrition'.

You can view each MF meal as 'small' or a 'necessary evil', or you can look at them as 'banquets'. How you present them to yourself matters, too.

I bought small custard cups...an extra set...when I started this program, because I quickly realized if I put some of the smaller MF meals into my larger bowls I was going to feel 'deprived' because they looked so small. I even eat my cereal out of a larger-sized custard bowl sometimes. And my brownies I put on a little plate...not a paper plate, a REAL plate. And I cut it up with a knife and fork.

I make every bite COUNT. And I try and make it look as pretty as possible.

Every night before dinner when I set the table, I light a candle in the center of the table. It's just a scented candle (usually rose-scented, I ADORE the smell of roses) but it fills the dining room with a nice scent and feels more romantic and 'special' and makes both of us slow down a bit more and take our time and enjoy ourselves. I try to make our food looking as nice as possible, and again I'll use smaller plates to make it look like more. I even use a small fork to eat with! (when I go to a restaurant the fork always seems HUGE to me). 

I'm trying to reinforce in my brain that I'm EATING, that I'm not depriving myself, look at how pretty this looks, look at how much I get to eat! I love lettuce salads and eggbeaters because we get so MUCH of them (LOL).  And hey, they're good for me!

It's all in your HEAD. That's what I tell anyone who asks...'how did you do it?' YES it's the MF meals and the program is important. But the REAL work is done in your HEAD. In what you TELL yourself. In how you cope with every situation, how you respond, what you LISTEN to in terms of your self-talk.

You can approach this program as a life-saving, life-affirming, SELF-LOVE kind of program....or you an look at it as 'just another diet'. It's up to you.

But I warn you...if you treat it like it's 'just another diet', well...we all know what happens. The second you reach goal you'll be 'OFF' your diet and back to the way you were eating...it's just a matter of time and circumstances...and then you'll be back.

OR you can do the hard work in your HEAD that's so important...and that sometimes is frustrating and painful and 'two steps forward, three steps back'....and you'll fail miserably and wind up with your head in the Ben&Jerry's bigtime but then you'll pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try AGAIN, and again, and again...and eventually you WILL learn the lessons you needed to learn and you WILL change where it matters.....IN YOUR HEAD.

And then your healthy meals will ALWAYS seem like a banquet!

Keep on keepin' on..