On the slim chance that you're thinking of "Binge," congratulations, we are of the same species. Whether it's food, fitness, alcohol, social media, television, shopping... picking my eyebrows until there was just a singular 'brow'...? If it exists, I've binged on it. I'm an extremist, and once I get into something, it's very difficult for me to get out of it. Whether that something is Bikram Yoga, a jar of Speculoos Cookie Butter, or a liter of Sauvignon Blanc...it all ends the same way: in absolute misery.
I have tried to master the art of "moderation" for as long as I remember. When I was two, and my pacifier was my main squeeze, I kept it in my mouth while I ate, slept, and pooped (when the "binky fairy" came to retrieve my best friend, you can imagine the anguish I endured). While I would never advise NOT eating healthy foods and exercising daily, there's something to be said about the importance of breaking the rules every so often.
Jill Coleman, a sixteen year veteran in the health and fitness industry, knows a thing (or twenty) about overall wellness. Coleman has a B.S. in Exercise Science and an M.S. in Human Nutrition. Since 2010, she has launched her own personal brand at JillFit.com, was a co-founder of Metabolic Effect, Inc., and continues to help fitness professionals build their brands through her online coaching program.
So, yes, this girl's legit.
I came across her blog about a year ago, and it didn't take more than a week for her blog to reign supreme as my internet default page. Coleman, being a former "binger", is on a mission to prove to women that being healthy does not mean abstaining from all things glorious. A blog post that especially hit home for me was 5 Tools to Teach Yourself How to Stop After a Few Bites. Every sentence I read made my heart pitter-patter in self-realization. I felt like the words had been sitting in the back of my mind and I just didn't know how to string them together to form the masterpiece that is this post.
In the post, she discusses the "What the Hell Effect" (couldn't have a more fitting name), which is what happens when you make one teeny tiny slip up and think "What the Hell. I already messed up. Lets just go balls to the wall." This way of thinking is definitely common- and absolutely INSANE. As Jill puts it:
"Making one poor choice and then saying, 'Screw it!' and eating with abandon is like getting a crack in your smartphone screen and then just saying, welp, might as well throw the whole phone on the ground and stomp it."Why does one small, self-regarded “mess up” take us mentally into the land of no returns? She goes on to explain how it's a control issue, and when we use food, alcohol, or exercise as a control mechanism, anything less than complete perfection makes you feel like a failure. The tool she recommends using is trust: trust that one slice of pizza won't gain you back the freshman fifteen you worked so hard to lose. Trust that missing one Bikram Yoga class will not cause you to become a heifer with the motor skills of a drunk baby. Trust that, whatever the slip-up may be, you can not only handle it, but improve with it.
Jill's health, happiness, and fitness approach from a full-body, whole-health standpoint is what keeps me from replacing her as my default browser with ManRepeller's. If, after reading this short tid-bit, you have found yourself thirsty for a hefty glass of Jill's wisdom, head on over to JillFit and let me know in the comments which of her posts make your heart pitter-patter.
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