Day Five: On Sadness

Happy Holidays, everyone! I've had a lovely Christmas weekend and hope all my friends and family have as well.

I'm starting to feel a little bit of sadness set in. It was a little sad that I didn't eat any of the desserts my brother made at our Christmas Eve dinner: lemon bars and peanut butter chocolate cookies. It was a little sad that I didn't eat waffles and gooey pancakes this morning at brunch. And, it was a little sad that I didn't eat a big bowl of sugary cereal, granola, or ice cream tonight at home.

For the most part, I've been really excited about the foods I've been eating. Foods like garlicky kale, yummy quinoa porridge and quinoa taboule, baked acorn squash with maple syrup, and nourishing pumpkin and squash soups. But tonight, when I got home from the movies and was feeling a little blue, a little underwhelmed by my day, and mostly bummed that I didn't practice yoga today (cause really, why aren't studios open on Xmas day - wink), I really missed eating a sweet treat to comfort myself.

Instead of soothing myself with ice cream or cookies, I made some oatmeal with almond butter. I was hungry and it tasted good, but it didn't get rid of my little bout of winter blues. The thing is, though, ice cream wouldn't have gotten rid of them either. Maybe I would've felt better for a few minutes or a little longer, but ultimately, ice cream doesn't have the power to get rid of my feelings. And this takes me back to yesterday's blog on feelings. They aren't going to go away, because feelings come in and go out just like waves. And maybe this is me learning to ride them instead of avoid them.

Hopefully if I stay with my sadness and continue down my path of healthy eating, it will go away, and I'll move into a better feeling-state. I'm willing to stick with it and find out where this takes me.