What’s a food “treat” on a sugar free diet?

Tonight I went to my local summer farmer’s market, hungry and searching for a treat – special foods to dress up my meals. Years ago, my quest for a treat would’ve meant buying a dessert – a batch of cookies, a homemade pie, kettle corn fresh from the pot.

But today I surveyed the offerings and bought a beautiful bunch of baby orange, yellow and purple carrots; some lettuce out of a neighbor’s garden; fresh blueberries, picked in Oregon the previous day; snap peas to eat right from the bag.

I came home and made a salad with my produce, topped with my favorite homemade dressing, pine nuts, and a bit of grilled chicken. I had the blueberries for dessert.

Delicious.

I am in a beautiful space:  where I love the food that loves me back. Where a treat, for me, is springing for fresh produce, a tomato out of the garden,  organic vegetables – something that positively impacts my health, versus junk food that negatively impacts my health. I make these self-loving choices about my food not out of duty, or obligation, because I feel like I have to, but because I want to. I crave produce from the garden, because it tastes good and makes me feel good.

The other foods I ate today – carrots and homemade hummus; tarragon chicken salad; baked potatoes with butter; chilled avocado soup (divine…); steamed broccoli with butter; a handful of cherries – were also what I wanted to eat. And they also made me feel good.

It’s easy to turn healthy eating into a food obsession, into an exercise in rigidity, control and self-denial. Where your eating habits turn into fuel for the ego, to feed your sense of moral superiority. (See how healthy I eat? You should only have the will power to eat like I do….)

Food is a pleasure. To be enjoyed. I can choose to abstain from sugar, an approach that some people may view as rigid, while also enjoying a wide variety of luscious foods. While celebrating food, the bounty on my plate. When I focus on how food makes me feel, then I’m not labeling foods as “good” or “bad,” and myself as “good” or “bad” for eating them. This disarms my ego’s need to feel right, good and superior.

Instead of focusing on how “good” or clean you eat, instead focus on love. Focusing on loving and enjoying your food. Focus on how eating certain foods make you feel. This is the easiest way I know to make healthy eating a lifelong habit, a true lifestyle change.

I like feeling good. Which is why I don’t eat sugar, why I limit the processed food I eat, and why I spring for fresh vegetables.

The next time you want a treat, stop, pause and ask yourself:  What do I really want? What foods make me feel good? The answers may surprise you. Follow that advice, and keep following it. You, too, will come to love the foods that love you back.