You get through the week, eating so well and staying on track. But, then the weekend comes and you just want a break. You want a break from the routine and a break from the rules. You just want to eat what’s easy and makes your family happy, even if you know it’s not actually supporting your health or even making you feel good. You tell yourself that it’s just for the weekend and you’ll get back to healthy eating on Monday. The Monday resets seem like a never ending cycle.
Does this sound familiar?
Are you tired of starting over every Monday?
I get it, the pressure to be “good” all the time and stay on track can be exhausting. So, of course you feel like you need and deserve a break! What if what you really need is a new approach instead of more effort?
If you’re ready to break the Monday reset cycle, keep reading!
The Problem with the Monday Reset Mentality
You have your rules that you live by during the week. There are the foods that you allow yourself to have and those you stay away from. You might even try to only eat at certain times and avoid snacking. You pat yourself on the back for doing so well, even it didn’t always feel great. Being hungry and drained of energy does not feel good. The weekend comes and you deserve that break from feeling restricted and needing to be perfect, right?
So, you take a break from your normal weekly eating pattern and indulge in the foods you don’t typically allow yourself to eat. And since you only allow yourself these foods every so often, you eat more than you normally would because, you don’t know when you’ll get to have them again. Unfortunately, instead of being happy and enjoying these foods, you end up feeling miserable. You not only feel overstuffed, you also feel shame and guilt for behaving that way. You feel like you have failed yourself and sabotaged your goals. That “break” you thought you were taking ends up taking an emotional toll on you.
You stay stuck in the mindset that you either need to control everything you eat or let yourself go and eat any and every thing, because you haven’t found the middle ground. You haven’t yet discovered that all foods can fit when it comes to healthy eating. You stay stuck in the Monday resets.
Why Diet Culture Keeps You Stuck Here
Diet culture leads us to believe that we can either count and control what we eat and stay on track if we want to be healthy or we can give in and eat the “bad” foods and never make any progress towards feeling good in and about our bodies. They (the diet industry) don’t want you to know that it doesn’t have to be so rigid and restrictive.
When we think we need to be perfect and follow the rules related to what, when and how much we eat, it sets us up to feel like a failure. It makes healthy eating feel like a punishment and therefore something we need a break from. But, it also makes us feel like we can’t be trusted to do the right thing for our own bodies, so we need the rules. And once again, back to the Monday resets!
Following the rules helps us believe we are have things under control and are making progress. Until we take a break and lose control. Losing control doesn’t feel good, and we go back to the rules as a way to feel safe. We do this over and over again knowing it’s not sustainable.
You might have even been lead to believe that the problem is you. Have you ever questioned whether or not the issue is with the method and mentality around needing to follow rules and be in control?
The Truth About Consistency and Flexibility
If you’re looking for healthy eating, it might be helpful to shift your mindset to believing that all foods fit. Healthy eating is built on consistency, not perfection. When you don’t feel the need to be in control and follow the rules, you also won’t have any rules to break. No rules to break means not losing control and finally breaking the habit of Monday resets.
When you can find consistency in flexibility, that’s when you can start to trust yourself again. That’s when you can find freedom around food choices and make the choices that feel good to you on a regular basis. This is how you can break the binge and restrict cycle.
Food freedom means choosing foods that you enjoy, that make you feel good and lead to better mental and physical health. It means not feeling like eating healthy foods are a punishment and eating “bad” foods are a break or a reward.
How to Break the Cycle of Monday Resets Cycle Good
Step 1: Identify your “start-over” triggers.
What are the rules that you’ve created around food that determines if you’re doing well and what signals that you have broken those rules? If we don’t know the rules we hold, we can begin to question if they are actually serving us.
Step 2: Ditch the guilt — food doesn’t need punishment.
Food choices are not moral choices. What we eat doesn’t make us better or worse as a person. We are who we are, regardless of what we consume. We are still worthy of love, success and happiness, no matter what we eat.
Step 3: Practice permission, not restriction.
When we truly allow ourselves full permission to eat all foods without restrictions, we remove the enticing quality that tends to come with those “off-limits” foods. When we tell ourselves we can’t have something, that becomes exactly what we want. We don’t want to be restricted and punished. When we have permission, those foods are not as coveted as they once were.
Step 4: Build trust by making small, consistent choices.
Once you’ve ditched the rules, you can start to build trust with your own body. You can start to tune in and know that your body will tell you what works and what doesn’t. You can begin to make the choices that feel good to you without feeling like you need a break or maintain control.
Step 5: Create a weekly rhythm that honors real life (not fake perfection).
Becoming aware of the foods that give you energy, taste good and satisfy you helps you create a pattern of honoring and nourishing your body instead of chasing the need for perfection.
A New Mindset Around Food
When we start to look at food in a different way, we can also find more freedom that allows us to let go of the Monday reset. We can let go of the feelings of guilt and shame around food. We won’t need to feel the need to work off the food that we ate through more exercise or further restrict ourselves to make up for what we ate.
Monday’s will no longer be a day that signifies getting back in control. You’ll know that at any moment you can tune into what your body needs and provide it, without judgement. You won’t have to ask yourself what you should be doing. You can start asking yourself want you want to do from a place of self care and compassion.
Reminders
This journey to ditch the cycle of Monday resets won’t feel perfect, and that’s ok. We are not perfect beings. That doesn’t mean we are failing. It means we are human and we are learning. We are finding out what works for us and that leads us to the life we want and the confidence in the body that we live in. It leads us away from the guilt that has followed us and closer to the joy that comes with feeling at ease with our choices.
I want to also remind you that you don’t have to live by anyone else’s rules. However, I do know that when shifting our mindsets to a new way of thinking, having a foundation and some guidance can be helpful. So, I’ve created a starter guide to support you as you start your journey,
Click the button below to get yours!
