Beating the Bender

You know how life just seems to get too overwhelming?  You know how you’re supposed to take deep breaths, go for a walk, pamper yourself, or mutter encouraging mantras to get you through the drama?  You know how after you try all of those things, and you’re still feeling affected, you figure that nothing beats an eating bender?  You know how you go on a bender with all the self-loathing that goes along with it, but you know you’re going to come out of it the next day stronger and more determined not to do it again? You know how that never works and the bender lasts  four more days than you expected, followed by a huge cookie baking, tasting and consuming swan song?  Yep, I know, and don’t ask me why.  I plead the fifth. Well, not really.

My stomach has concurred that it takes a lot longer to get over benders these days.  In fact, it gurgled in retaliation begging me to stop last weekend. My brain, however, devilishly coaxed me to continue my egregious behavior. Clearly, my upper and lower half, were not in sync with each other coupled with a really anxious hormone fairy spreading insatiable cravings like angry pixie dust.  OY.

Benders are an interesting beast.  They come on suddenly, throw you off course, wreak havoc of epic proportions, and disrupt one’s clean eating balance.  The good news, however, is that they strengthen one’s clean eating resolve, restoring one’s virtuous eating habits once more, like a beautiful, sunny day following a hurricane. 

I have often wrestled with the bender.  Sometimes I win, and sometimes I don’t.  Clearly, I didn’t win this past weekend and had to deal the grim aftermath. My pants were a wee bit tight on Monday (I was still in the cookie bender phase), but today, I am feeling much better.  Workouts have resumed, water consumption is high, clean foods abound, and yes, I admit, my body is much happier.  

If you have been on a bender, don’t fret my sugar, greasy, salty, crunchy, victims... it’s okay.  Get back on the horse.  Life is all about screw-ups.  What’s done is done.  Movin’on.  Forge ahead.  Make it work.   It won’t take long to get back to where you were, because where you were, is how you get to where you want to be.