It’s taken me 42 years to say this but here it goes:

Eat the dang cookie.

Don’t cut it in half if you don’t want to.
Don’t take a bite and throw the rest in the trash.
Don’t pass altogether and nibble grapes instead.

And don’t eat it only because you got a workout in earlier.
Or wait until after you’ve reached 10,000 steps if you don’t want to wait.
Don’t deprive yourself of it because you had dessert yesterday.

Life is too dang short for these mind games!

If you are like me, you grew up with moms counting points on Weight Watchers. Oprah touting how she lost a few pounds on magazine covers. And diet gurus telling you to stick to 1,500 calories a day and protein portions the size of your fist.

People promising South Beach Diet was a game changer.
Then Atkins.
Keto. Whole 30. Juice Cleanse. Intermittent Fasting.

I’m so tired of being told what to put in my body and withhold from it. I’ve been on diets for 30 years of my life and by no coincidence I’ve had a disordered relationship with food for that long. For the first time ever I am learning to eat the damn cookie, not because I should or shouldn’t but because I want to and life is too damn short to not live it to the fullest.

It's a baby step for sure. I’m not saying I wont feel guilt for it tonight if the elastic band on my PJ’s feel a microscopic bit tighter. But I am finally learning that the weight on the scale does not define my value. The a bulge in my belly does not undermine my worth. And that the number of calories I ate in a day does not have to drive my workout plans.

I am not a number, or a jeans size, or a S/M/L/XL shirt.

I am a beautiful human and my body is simply my vessel.

And when my vessel wants a cookie, I’m going to eat the dang cookie.