Good morning, everyone. I wanted to talk to you today about the concept of YOLO: You Only Live Once. You hear it all the time, and I always hear it from clients or friends who are trying to change their health, get a little healthier, and maybe lose a couple of pounds. And I'll ask them, how'd it go last weekend? What happened? And they'll tell me about some indiscretion, some off plan eat, And then they'll say, “well, you only live once; YOLO”, as if for some reason that's an excuse to totally ditch our plan that we made with our best interest in mind.
I teach making a plan from a very positive place taking care of ourselves, self care, and making our food plan. So this idea that we're taking better care of ourselves by going off plan with a YOLO eat is just really interesting to me. I thought it might be good to reframe it: YOLO is out there. Everyone uses it as an excuse for immediate gratification. I don't expect everyone to be better or perfect than anyone else. So let's talk about how we might reframe YOLO where it will serve our long-term goals better than This immediate gratification of an off plan eat or drinking too much or whatever it happened to be.
I do like to think we only have one life. You only live once. And so if we take that concept to our body and nourishing and feeding our body, what if during this one life that we lead, we only let the best foods in. Okay? So if I am at a birthday party and someone offers me cake, and I'm not going to be mean about grocery store cakes, but let's just say it's not a special cake, it's just a cake. This idea that I would use YOLO to eat a piece of not special cake just doesn't make sense. Right? If we're saying only the best gets into my belly, I only have room for the best, I only live once, I only have one body, why would I let just plain old grocery store cake in there? I have been offered cake many many many many times. This is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Now, If I'm in France at a French bakery where they've crafted something delicious just for me and I will never get that again, that's a little bit different than the 6-year-old's birthday party with a piece of vanilla cake. If I am having the most exquisite glass of wine that's been paired by a chef and a sommelier, that's amazing and it's truly a once in a lifetime experience… that's very different than drinking mediocre wine because it's going to go bad tomorrow, it's already been open for 2 days. Just me. I'm sure everyone's a little guilty of that.
I like to try and use this and be cognizant of this and try and keep this thought at the front of my mind when I'm presented with an opportunity for an off plan eat. Is this the best doughnut I'm going to have, or is this an everyday doughnut that I could get anytime I want?
The food industry put a lot of money into creating scarcity around food. So the perfect example of this is Girl Scout Cookies. Our brain wants to think this is our one and only chance to ever have them, so we order Girl Scout cookies as soon as they're available. We might even order extra and put them in the freezer with this idea that we're going to space them out throughout the year. Inevitably, that doesn't happen and we overeat Girl Scout cookies, And then we're not happy about it. The thoughts we might have about ourselves for overeating the Girl Scout Cookies are not positive, generally. This is not something that we want to experience on a routine basis. We don't want to use YOLO to then feel shame about eating something we shouldn't have eaten or overeating something that we only wanted to eat a little bit of.
What do we do about this? Again, I think we just need to be aware. Awareness is always the best place to start. Be mindful. And when we are presented with these off plan eat opportunities, just to be very conscious, be very aware, be very focused. When we make a decision, am I going to eat it or not? So if I'm presented with a Girl Scout cookie, I can choose to think, I've had enough of those for a lifetime, which is true. I can choose to think, I'll wait, maybe I'll have one next year. I can choose to think, maybe I'll take 1 home for later or tomorrow when I'll plan for it, or I can choose to think, I know the consequences, and I know I'll probably feel shame after this, but I'm choosing to eat one anyway.
What I don't want you to do is sort of go unconscious about it. Turn a blind eye and think that it doesn't matter. I know I've said that to myself about unplanned eats. I'm sure you have said that to yourself about unplanned eats at some point, But I don't want us to say it doesn't matter. It does matter. I just want us to say with full consciousness and open eyes and full focus, Yes. I know that's an unplanned eat. Yes. I know. I can probably have it again some other time, but I want it now. I don't think there's some underlying reason that I can fix right now. I don't think this is emotional eating. I really just want it. And just be fully conscious when we choose.
I also, in that process, want us to ask ourselves, Is this truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience? Is this a YOLO moment? Is this the best ice cream I'm ever going to have? Is this the best piece of bread I'm ever going to have? Is this the best piece of cake? Is this the best? Is this a once-in-a-lifetime experience? Is this something that I am willing to deal with potentially negative feelings about because I am fully conscious and I am deciding this is worth it for me. This is a once in a lifetime, you only live life once, I'm going to YOLO, I'm going to eat.
So that's my take on YOLO. I would love to know how you feel about this. Do you feel like this is a good reframe or not, but I appreciate you joining me today.