Eating that processed food was the best thing I could have done!

So after I left work yesterday I decided I was going all in and ordered one of my favorite yet ridiculously processed meals...steak and cheese philly, curly fries, poppers and for good measure I threw in a diet soda too. On the drive home the smell of the fries were intoxicating, I almost couldn't wait to get through the door to start eating them!! I sat down all excited, but then as I started eating, the excitement quickly began to wear off. The food tasted good, don't get me wrong, but by no means as good as I remembered it tasting, or wanted it to taste. There was nothing wrong with the food... it tasted the same as it always has but I started to realize there was nothing special about it. I work a little bit with addiction and the more I think about it, I really was experiencing symptoms of an addict (obviously on a much much much smaller scale.) The idea of the food was so amazing, when I had it near me I could barely wait to dig in... but then when I actually had it, it just didn't satisfy my craving like I had hoped. And I think it's in that moment you have a decision to make...do you keep eating more processed foods in the hopes of satisfying that craving, or do you realize that what your body is truly craving will never actually be satisfied with all that shit! It was really in this moment that I decided I'm truly ready to walk away from processed foods...and not to lose weight for vanity's sake, but because I just don't want to keep causing so much damage to my body.

I also realized, I could easily make something similar (sort of) to this meal that would taste just as good, if not better, and I would feel so much better about what I was putting into my body. I also am pretty sure I wouldn't feel as crappy as I did physically after I was done eating. That's one of the big things I've noticed... I've probably been eating about 85-90% unprocessed food lately and I have yet to eat a clean unprocessed meal that has made me feel overly full or gross when I was done. But the last two times that I've eaten highly processed foods I've noticed that I feel lethargic, gross and my body and digestive track are just off for a day or two.

So I think eating all that processed food last night was one of the best things I could have done for myself in this journey. It did exactly what I hoped it would do.

I'm still debating on whether I'm going to follow The Science of Skinny's two week transition exactly, but admittedly after last night I'm more open to the idea. She doesn't call it a "challenge" but instead a transition to help your body adjust...so I don't know why I'm thinking of it in any other way. Old habits die hard I guess.