Who has been on a diet, slipped up, felt terrible about it, and didn’t know what to do next?
We have all been there before. The question to focus on in this situation is not what to do next. That answer is obvious. Get back on track. The focus should be on why we are unable to say no.
We all know that to achieve our health goals, we need to be able to say no. Especially to the foods that we know we should avoid or at least limit. I believe that our ability to say no with grace is one of the most critical factors in achieving and maintaining better health. Let me explain.
If you slip up and make a poor food choice when you are trying to be conscious of eating better, the biggest tragedy is not the food that you ate but rather that you were unable to prevent yourself from doing something you told yourself you wouldn’t do. Your inability to say no.
According to the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “he who falls into that which he would avoid is unhappy.” To put more simply, we don’t feel very good about ourselves when we are unable to do what we told ourselves we would (or wouldn’t) do.
Imagine someone who is doing very well with their food choices and feeling proud of themselves for it. They are about to go out to dinner with friends and decide that they are going to opt for a healthy meal because they want to stay on track with their health progress. They get to the restaurant and when the temptation hits, they abandon their plan and instead opt to eat the whole bread bowl, order a personal pizza, and wrap it all up with dessert.
In this story, the person is going to go home that night feeling like a failure. Feeling like they have lost all of their health progress because of a lack of self-control. Worst of all, because they had their will broken by cravings, they likely didn’t even enjoy the foods they ate. The nature of these feelings not only makes it hard to get back on track with their diet, but hard to feel positive about themselves in general. This is the tragedy of slipping up on a diet. This is one of the reasons why so many diets fail.
Epictetus also provides some advice on how to prevent this from happening. He says that we must develop “a profession in aversion”. To develop a profession in aversion means that you will not “fall into that which you attempt to avoid” under the notion that sticking to your guns will help you feel like a success.
Success in improving your health is a lot easier when you feel good doing it. One great way to feel good is to stick with the plan. Avoid the temporary gratification for the longer-term health investment. Develop a “profession in aversion” so that you will be able to keep stacking up your health wins, progressing towards a better you, and feeling good along the way.
Developing a profession in aversion takes time. Not only does it require self-control, but it also requires strong feelings of self-worth. To avoid something we want to avoid, we must care about ourselves enough to realize that we are trying to avoid that something for a reason, and in the long run, we will be happier and healthier for having avoided it.
Over the next few newsletters, I am going to be expanding on this concept of developing a “profession in aversion” in an attempt to help you look at your nutrition a little differently. Note that I will not be discussing how to never slip up on your diet. In fact, I will actually be discussing why I wouldn’t advise that at all.
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