Once a month we get together with friends and play the very social dice-game, Bunco. It’s always a fun evening filled with friends, laughter, and food. Lots and lots of high-calorie food.

In addition to all the food that people bring, our friends even put out bowls of salty and sweet treats right on the tables, making it so easy to mindlessly munch the night away.

And I eat. I probably eat more calories in this one evening than I typically do in a day.

So it’s one evening a month. What’s the big deal?

The big deal is how I feel about all that eating. While I’m perfectly happy to allow myself a weekly treat, it’s always my intention to eat moderately. When my thoughts are not in alignment with my actions, it generates negative catabolic emotion, often guilt.

This is important because your thoughts are directly linked to your body. Negative thoughts create draining, destructive catabolic energy that releases stress hormones and other harmful processes that literally eat way at your cells.

Positive thoughts release constructive, anabolic energy that generates physical processes that support—and rebuild—your body.

And just like thoughts can be anabolic or catabolic, food can be anabolic or catabolic, meaning it’s either supporting your body or it’s hindering it. You can bet that during Bunco night, most of the nibbles are not anabolic foods high in natural energy and nutrition. They’re just big on taste.

Just as important as the food we eat is what we think about our food. What we think can make our food more or less anabolic or catabolic.

For instance, if you eat something “healthy” but you resent it and feel deprived, how anabolic is that going to be? The negative catabolic energy from your thoughts can literally make it harder for your body to absorb all the good nutrition you’re putting into it.

If you eat something “bad” but feel totally satisfied, appreciative, and content, how catabolic is that going to be? What if you feel guilty about eating that same food?

Your thoughts need to be in alignment with what you’re eating.

My Bunco-binges probably wouldn’t be so bad if I allowed myself to totally enjoy every bite. But few of us have the mental ability to toss aside medical research, media reports, fat jokes, and thousands of diet books to truly be able to feel guilt-free after munching sugar and fat-laden snacks until Midnight.

I can’t anyway.

If I can’t shift my thoughts about my actions so that I feel good, than I need to align my actions with my thoughts. Meaning, I have to come up with a plan for tonight that allows me a little leeway to enjoy a treat, but to not go overboard. I will know that I have been successful at achieving this balance if I head home feeling mentally and physically great about how I managed the evenings munchies.

The good feeling you get from sticking to your eating plan is better and lasts longer than the fleeting flavor you would’ve gotten from eating the food you resisted.

Here’s my plan for Bunco tonight:

• Eat healthy throughout the day.
• Get in a workout.
• Have a filling and nutritious meal before we go.
• Look over all the food and choose one thing that I will indulge in. (This will probably be the crust-less fudge pie that my husband is planning to make. It’s totally calorie-worthy!)
• Take a tray of vegetables and healthy hummus to give myself some nutritious nibbles throughout the evening.
• Take some sugar-free gum along to chew if I start fighting cravings.
• Go in determined to succeed and feel guilt-free.
• Hold myself accountable by reporting to you all how I did.

I would love to hear what works for you when you’re facing food-laden situations, and how great you feel when you stick to your plan.

Together we can do it!

Photo by artemisphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net