Indulging in pleasure for weight loss is not about going crazy and stuffing yourself with jellybeans and cream puffs. We can temporarily fool ourselves into thinking that we enjoy doing this, but your body’s deeper truth is that it feels awful to overeat and to be filled up with processed foods.
The first step to pleasurable weight loss is learning to differentiate between two types of pleasures that people often confuse: True pleasure and counterfeit pleasure.
Here’s the difference.
True pleasures are sustainable. You can enjoy them without compromising your ability to have more in the future. True pleasure feels like a choice, not a compulsion. It does not send you scurrying back for seconds or thirds with your head hung low. You take pride in your pleasure. Every bite, every sip, every move – true pleasure is intentional.
True pleasure sets you up to continue enjoying life, without next-day regret.
By contrast, counterfeit pleasures are not long-lasting. They are addictions or compulsions that don’t serve your development or your well-being. Counterfeit pleasures compromise your Female Animal.
Here’s are some examples.
- A true pleasure: Shamelessly enjoying every bite you take of a sumptuous slice of cake you savored in a chic coffee shop. This creates a fond memory you can enjoy for years.
- A counterfeit pleasure: Polishing off an entire cake in one sitting while home alone, leaving you in a sugar coma with a bellyache and a shame hangover.
When you understand how to listen to your Female Animal and differentiate between true and counterfeit pleasures, that’s when you will become a pleasure connoisseur.
A pleasure connoisseur gets that true pleasures are not limited to food. Your Female Animal needs to enjoy an array of non-food pleasures in order to thrive, and a pleasure connoisseur is not shy about providing those for her Female Animal.
These pleasures include your body’s needs for physical activity, loving relationships and creative, sensual and sexual expression.
When you respond to all of her pleasure needs, she will no longer need to cry out for quick-fix remedies that lead to weight gain, shame and regret.
So throw away everything associated with the deprivation mindset that the conventional weight loss and fitness industries have taught you.
Start today by creating a list of food and non-food pleasures that your Female Animal is excited to experience. I invite you to share a few of them in the comments below!
New York, New York
Ryan
I find myself super uncreative when it comes to thinking of ways to pleasure my Female Animal but that makes me know that I need to study how to be a pleasure connoisseur even more! So far I’ve come up with:
1. more sex
2. walking barefoot in the grass in my yard
3. sitting on my Adirondack chairs in my front yard and just looking up at the sky and watching the day go by
4. swinging on the swing while babywearing
5. dancing with my baby
6. belly dancing class – I found one near me!
7. swimming- this is a must but I have so many boby shaming obstacles in my way. ( I used to swim like a fish when I was growing up and stopped altogether after high school -so tragic)