Responsibly relaxed
I had a client use this term when referring to their weekend and I loved it. So much so that I stole it for my own use 😉
To me, responsible relaxation is a practice in mindfulness and mindfulness is an indispensable tool in maintaining weight loss. Notice that I said maintaining as many people can lose weight by just white knuckling it and clenching their teeth. However, I’ve yet to see that behavior succeed long term.
My goal for clients is to unite the physical, emotional, and cognitive self in order to create lasting change. Physicality is where we see quality of life. Exercise, health, energy. Emotional life is our feelings and spirituality and relationships. Learning emotional control will help us to regulate peaks and valleys. Our cognitive, or mental self is logic.
Developing a cognitive sense of nutrition is extremely important. Counting macros and calories and weighing food develops these skills. Once those have been sufficiently developed we can work on our mindfulness practice, but that cognitive base is really unrivaled.
If you’ve learned what to eat and the amounts needed for sustenance, practicing how to eat is the next step. Awareness, being present, and avoiding emotional attachment to foods will be work but the rewards are many. Work to be able to enjoy events without anxiety. Learn to be responsibly relaxed.