Saying No To The Concept of 'Bad' Food

In 2014, my major goal for the year was to be fit. At least that's what I said, I remember even tweeting about it. In hindsight, I think it was more like I wanted to lose weight. I followed all those Twitter fitness accounts to keep me motivated and worked out diligently. Has anyone heard of the seven-minute workout? Well, I did that and a host of many others regularly.

    In high school, we had two breaks, a short one and lunch. During the short break, I would only eat an apple and drink water. For me, it wasn't so bad as I've always been a fan of picking water over sugary drinks and I genuinely liked apples. But after a while, I started getting pretty miserable. Sure, I liked apples but I didn't want to have it every single day during short break. Sometimes I wanted Gala (if you know, you know) and Capri Sonne (orange is my favourite flavour, what's yours?). Fridays were my 'cheat days' and Fridays alone. Whilst I never starved myself, I did deprive myself of some of the things I liked to eat because they were 'bad'. I remember not having any cake and ice cream on my friend Daniella's birthday because it wasn't my cheat day. Even just typing that is making me chuckle, how ridiculous. 

I obviously couldn't keep that up for long, it's quite exhausting obsessing over food that way. And when I finally had the things I craved, I would overeat because I had deprived myself for so long. So that was my food mentality, eat super clean always and have a cheat day once a week. Fall off the bandwagon because I was being too hard on myself and then start all over again. Super exhausting. 

Now that I'm older, I understand things better. The issue wasn't my attempt at eating healthy, for the most part, I did a great job in my opinion. It was this mindset that some foods are good and some are bad. It was just so unfortunate for me that all my favourite foods happened to be labelled bad. For example, white bread and butter. And whilst my mindset has changed over the last three years, it's still a struggle at times to not feel guilty about eating certain things.

Saying no to the concept of bad food doesn't mean that I eat anything I want whenever I want. That just shows a lack of self-discipline. No matter how much you love chocolate, having chocolate all day every day isn't the best choice health wise. 

We should all try to eat healthy most of the time and not just to be slim or whatever. For your skin, for your hair, your mood, your health! But at the same time, we shouldn't deprive ourselves of having the things we enjoy. As with everything in life, moderation is really key. One of my major reasons for eating healthy is for skincare and so before eating anything  I ask myself if this benefits my skin or not. It has actually been working because today I realised that I haven't eaten bread and butter (my ultimate comfort food) in over a month. It wasn't a conscious decision, I was just so focused on eating what would benefit my skin best. That doesn't mean I don't eat things that some might say aren't the best for clear skin. For example, I just had shortbread and ice cream and I feel pretty good *smug face*

I don't see food as good or bad anymore. It's just simply food. Living on carrot sticks alone will make you miserable and so would living on cake alone. Balance is what I've learned is really important and I try to keep that in mind. I honestly don't know if I'm making sense, this just feels like a long ramble and I thought of not posting it because it's quite personal but maybe it can help someone out there. Remember, food is not your enemy. 😃

In 2014, my major goal for the year was to be fit. At least that's what I said, I remember even tweeting about it. In hindsight, I think it was more like I wanted to lose weight. I followed all those Twitter fitness accounts to keep me motivated and worked out diligently. Has anyone heard of the seven-minute workout? Well, I did that and a host of many others regularly.

    In high school, we had two breaks, a short one and lunch. During the short break, I would only eat an apple and drink water. For me, it wasn't so bad as I've always been a fan of picking water over sugary drinks and I genuinely liked apples. But after a while, I started getting pretty miserable. Sure, I liked apples but I didn't want to have it every single day during short break. Sometimes I wanted Gala (if you know, you know) and Capri Sonne (orange is my favourite flavour, what's yours?). Fridays were my 'cheat days' and Fridays alone. Whilst I never starved myself, I did deprive myself of some of the things I liked to eat because they were 'bad'. I remember not having any cake and ice cream on my friend Daniella's birthday because it wasn't my cheat day. Even just typing that is making me chuckle, how ridiculous. 

I obviously couldn't keep that up for long, it's quite exhausting obsessing over food that way. And when I finally had the things I craved, I would overeat because I had deprived myself for so long. So that was my food mentality, eat super clean always and have a cheat day once a week. Fall off the bandwagon because I was being too hard on myself and then start all over again. Super exhausting. 

Now that I'm older, I understand things better. The issue wasn't my attempt at eating healthy, for the most part, I did a great job in my opinion. It was this mindset that some foods are good and some are bad. It was just so unfortunate for me that all my favourite foods happened to be labelled bad. For example, white bread and butter. And whilst my mindset has changed over the last three years, it's still a struggle at times to not feel guilty about eating certain things.

Saying no to the concept of bad food doesn't mean that I eat anything I want whenever I want. That just shows a lack of self-discipline. No matter how much you love chocolate, having chocolate all day every day isn't the best choice health wise. 

We should all try to eat healthy most of the time and not just to be slim or whatever. For your skin, for your hair, your mood, your health! But at the same time, we shouldn't deprive ourselves of having the things we enjoy. As with everything in life, moderation is really key. One of my major reasons for eating healthy is for skincare and so before eating anything  I ask myself if this benefits my skin or not. It has actually been working because today I realised that I haven't eaten bread and butter (my ultimate comfort food) in over a month. It wasn't a conscious decision, I was just so focused on eating what would benefit my skin best. That doesn't mean I don't eat things that some might say aren't the best for clear skin. For example, I just had shortbread and ice cream and I feel pretty good *smug face*

I don't see food as good or bad anymore. It's just simply food. Living on carrot sticks alone will make you miserable and so would living on cake alone. Balance is what I've learned is really important and I try to keep that in mind. I honestly don't know if I'm making sense, this just feels like a long ramble and I thought of not posting it because it's quite personal but maybe it can help someone out there. Remember, food is not your enemy. 😃