You're out to dinner.
Before you even pick up the menu, you think- what's the healthiest thing I can order?
You look at the salad section. Healthy choices there! Cobb salad or Chicken Casaer? Ugg. Is cheese okay? Is bacon okay? How about croutons?
Actually. You don't even want a salad. You had a salad for lunch. Plus, it's freakin' cold out. The last thing you want to eat is something cold.
You ask your friends. What are they ordering? You don't want to be the only one at the table that doesn't order a salad.
You start to look at the sandwiches. This restaurant has the BEST sweet potato fries. But, what's up with all of those calories? Does a grilled chicken sandwich really have that many calories? Uggh.
You look around the restaurant to see what other people have ordered.
Steak? No. Salmon? Oh. That could work. But they are serving it with potatoes. Too many carbs.
How about a soup? Shoot. They only have French Onion. Ugg. Sounds good but way too heavy. Not healthy.
While the rest of your friends are chatting and catching up on life, you're going through the mental gymnastics of ordering your dinner. You're missing out. And it's straight out exhausting.
What's going on?
Two things.
1. You're trying to follow food rules to be good.
2. You are missing the internal cues that offer you guidance on what would taste good, feel great in your body and what you'd enjoy eating.
When following external (diet or health) rules, all of your decisions making is outside of you. That's why you second guess yourself. You're not confident. This is really exhausting.
You left the restaurant overfilled but still feeling empty.
When you tune in to the information that comes from the inside (hunger, fullness, satisfaction, preference), you can make food choices with ease.
You'll be free to enjoy dinner out with friends.