Why You Should Let Yourself Have Ice Cream

Good-morning all! Happy Thursday 🙂 I hope you slept well. I literally slept like A ROCK last night. It was so hard to wake up this morning. Marco basically forced me out of bed by taking all the sheets off and saying “get up! Gotta make the bed!” That being said, I’m up, and back from the gym with a mind full of creativity. Glad I woke up :).

Today I am going to share Daily Eats from yesterday (Wednesday). I’m going to end this post sharing with you all why I believe it’s totally okay and even good to allow yourself normal treats here and there. I hope this post totally encourages you and takes some of the pressure to “be good” all the time OFF.

6:00 wake, coffee, & blogging

7:50 left for Trader Joe’s

8:45 – breakfast was a “yogurt smoothie” with honey greek yogurt, a little bit of organic whole milk, a handful of spinach, two small bananas, about 1/2 a cup of blueberries, and 2T. of flaxseed meal. It was delicious, and filling! I drank about 3/4, realized I was fill-in’ up, and let Marco enjoy the rest with his morning oatmeal.

10:00 met my friend Jenni for a walk here in SLO 🙂

11:30 – lunch was the leftovers I had from Tuesday. See this post to read about stopping when you’re full. They were even better the next day!

12:00 – 5:30 I met with Clients. Speaking of Clients, today, those of you on my Health Coaching List (see the first button in my blog’s sidebar to view &/or join!) are going to get an email from me! I’m sharing my openings privately with you first. I can’t wait to connect with more of you! 🙂

Staying on that topic, yesterday I got the sweetest gift from a Client! Seriously. My love language test says that I am a Words of Affirmation & Physical Touch person, but I think gifts ought to be in there too because this meant SO much to me!

Inside was a thank you card, the book Simple Abundance, some silky-smoothe honey lotion to go in my purse, and a mug that can be used for petite treats, tea, or coffee! I love this gift so much. Ah, fulfilled.

I had two snacks throughout the afternoon.

2:30 was the first snack – a piece of avocado toast & tea in my new mug 🙂

4:00 was the second snack – a few chips with my dad’s homemade salsa. Ah, yum!

5:30 I “closed up shop” & planned my next work day.

6:00 I was totally OFF work and plugged in my phone in the bedroom & put it on silent. This is my favorite way to unplug. I sleep a million times better when I do this.

7:00 we ate dinner – which was a spinach, tofu, and quinoa salad. Ah, it was heavenly!

I cooked the tofu “crumbled style” with olive oil, sea-salt, 21 seasoning salute, minced cilantro, and chopped onion. At the same time, I cooked a big ol’ batch of quinoa. To finish everything up, I mixed it all in a big salad bowl making salads filled with: scrambled tofu, quinoa, spinach, raw red onions (chopped), pico de gallo dressing, fresh cilantro, and Tuscan Italian Dressing from Trader Joe’s. Delicious!

Now, to talk about this dessert topic & why you should let yourself have ice cream. 

After dinner Marco and I had ice cream. It was special because Marco called me after work as he was standing in front of the freezer at the market and asked me to choose my flavor of Ben & Jerry’s over the phone (I chose Chunky Monkey). It was a fun gift in itself :). That’s the first good part (I got to ENJOY this instead of let it cause me anxiety, which is what it would have done in my diet days).

The second part of why you should let yourself have ice cream is because it will help to crowd out your cravings to binge or over eat ice cream when you finally get the chance to have it (or you finally “give in”).

Personally, I like to have mine “Petite-Treat” style, which you see above (left). The size you see above is small not because I “restrict,” but rather because I have, through trial and error, found that this amount of ice cream leaves me feeling great. I don’t feel drug down or hyped up. I feel rested, happy, and satisfied.

Now, we’ve all been on diets before. Heck, if you knew me 5 or so years ago, you knew that I was the queen of dieting (see my story). Dieting includes a lot of restriction. Restriction and deprivation ultimately lead to not feeling mindful with certain foods once you get the chance to have them. This also leads to a lot of “last supper” mentality. Thoughts like:

“Oh, well, I deserve this! It’s Spring Break/Easter/Christmas/Sunday… I should have it ALL now, and then on Monday/after Spring Break/January 1st I’ll do better.” (basically what you’re saying here is “THAT’S when I’ll finally start listening to my body and making choices that feel good.”)

But why not start now?

Why not acknowledge the fact that “hey! Maybe I like ice cream and that’s not such a bad thing!”

Instead of trying to deprive yourself of it, learn NOW how to enjoy it in moderation at those times that you are craving it. THIS way, you won’t need those binge-y, all or nothing moments. Instead, you’ll be able to calmly decide whether you do or do not feel like ice cream consistently when you’re given the option, you’ll know that you can have it ANY time that you really want it, and you’ll trust yourself to be mindful and make a choice that feels good once you do have it.

To me, gosh, that is so worth it and allows you to enjoy life and all of the wonderful things about it SO much more.

Questions or comments? Please share in the comment section 🙂 I read every one and do my very best to respond. 

xo, your coach

P.S. if you want to hear about my Health Coaching openings directly from me, jump on the “Health Coaching List.” I’ll be sending out emails today with an option to schedule a free consultation.