Stop treating the day before your diet starts like Mardi Gras

“Ramping yourself up” to start a goal has the opposite effect for feminine energy women. 

For men, this type of “battle cry” may be helpful at charging testosterone but for women, it creates a lot of pressure that many unconsciously aren’t sure they can sustain. 

I had a conversation the other day (it’s really common this time of year) about this concept- I call it the “Mardi Gras mindset”. 

It will play out as “I need to X and then I’ll do Y”. 

Some common examples include: 

Needing to eat the junk food they just bought, and then they’ll eat healthier. 

Needing to go on vacation and then they’ll start the exercise routine.  

Or needing to get through the holidays and then they can get their sleep routine on track. 

It almost always includes permission to swing from one extreme to the other. 

It’s not that any of these are invalid reasons.

But the mindset underneath is stacked against them. 

The rationale is one of either/or and that assumes you can only do one thing OR the other. 

But humans are multidimensional with needs and emotions that fluctuate. 

When you operate with the Mardi Gras mindset you are allowing your inner child to steer the ship. 

The adult part of you may understand that binging on snacks might actually cause you to gain weight but the child energy will present the case that you won’t be able to have it for a while so you should experience “freedom while you can”. 

The problem is, this isn’t freedom, it’s an illusion. 

The reason the adult part of you doesn’t see the illusion is that it is fused with the child (often as a result of unclear boundaries with our own caregivers).

When we haven’t developed the separateness from this part of ourself, we unconciously react to the tantrums of our inner child and allow it to have what it wants (instead of consciously providing what it needs).

Freedom, as an adult, is found in choice… having less emotional charge around enticing foods/habits and being able to take the action that will help you feel your best (even if that means lounging on the couch and watching a movie). 

The child’s definition of freedom is based on a child’s perspective of power, specifically, the power to decide (because of their level of dependency, there are often things that are outside of their control that are chosen *for* them, they want to have the power to choose but it plays out in submission or rebellion- the only choices they have in those dynamics).

If this isn’t brought to our conscious awareness, it will create a compulsive search for “freedom” in the form of pleasure (i.e. sweets, not doing what they are “supposed to” do) and freedom from restriction. 

What the child energy in all of us needs is consistent care, positive reflection, and guidance.

This is what elevates the child’s perspective to see the bigger picture (imagine being on dad’s shoulders at Disneyland, the park will look much different than if you’re walking in a crowd) and activates a new desire- to explore.

Instead of pleasure coming from freedom from accountability, pleasure comes from being supported in getting where you want to go (think exploring new things instead of recreating the same experience on repeat). 

This is what happens with clients when, instead of stacking more challenges in front of them (by “cleaning out the snack drawer” or “resting on vacation”) for their future self to tackle, we relieve the need to “ramp up” their energy to meet the challenge by breaking down the most actionable steps they feel comfortable taking now.

Think of it like a ramp. If you stop putting bricks under one side, it becomes less steep. 

If you start putting bricks under the other side, it can become neutral. And if you begin removing bricks from one side gravity will naturally “help” you down the ramp without much effort on your part. 

I always remind them that every pound they don’t gain is a pound they won’t have to lose.

When they can focus on filing down the mountain they’ve been creating with the Mardi Gras mindset, it tips the scale in their favor and they begin moving (gravity is taking over) in the direction they most want- toward feeling better and more confident in their body. 

This is what my program Nourished is designed to do. We systematically begin filing down the perceived challenges and stacking them in your favor with simple, supportive solutions so you can explore deeper, emotional work with greater ease.  

The more you shift your inner world, the more clearly you can see the patterns (like the Mardi Gras mindset) playing out that keep you from moving forward. This inside-out approach makes sense to feminine energy women because it leverages their greatest asset- their emotional connection and creative capacity- making it easier for them to stop battling food and settle into long-term changes.  

The women who create the best results are in touch with their emotions but haven’t been able to translate their emotional experience into actionable changes they can maintain. Their family/friends are very supportive but don’t seem to speak her “language” (feelings) making reaching out for help seem like a bigger challenge. She is successful in many areas of her life but finds long-term changes to improve her health difficult to maintain, resorting to needing to “ramp up” her efforts in order to see results. 

If you’re ready to get started without having to “ramp up”, I’ll link more details below. If you have questions to decide if this is the right fit, send me an email (cschandnutrition@gmail.com) and we can schedule time to talk about what you’ve tried and what’s currently happening so you know where to start.