Can we make a pact right here, right now, with the first fuckery of 2016 as our witness to release ourselves from self-judgement, self-scolding and feeling guilty when we're not perfect?

That shit needs to go. There’s enough hatred and judgment in the world. 

Having high standards for yourself is awesome. Beating yourself up when you’re not perfect sucks. 

And spoiler alert, no one is perfect.

I was at a dinner the other night that lasted 5 hours. It was my girlfriend's mom's 75th birthday celebration and a fancy 10 course Chinese dinner for 50 people was how she wanted to party. 

Do you know how much one person can consume when there’s a constant stream of food being served for 5 fucking hours? 

• So much that people had to exit the restaurant in the middle of dinner to take a brief walk. 
• So much that the private bathroom where the dinner was being served made total sense about two hours into dinner. 
• So much that I used that bathroom over a half dozen times during dinner, mostly so I could fart. 
• So much that after dinner I didn’t fit into the pants that I had arrived in 5 hours earlier. 

And get this -  the day before the marathon dinner, I ate a huge piece of Banoffee pie. It wasn’t so much pie as it was heroin in pie form. It had bananas, cream, chocolate, toffee and a graham cracker crust. Nothing about this was plant-based. Nothing about this was vegan. 

It was made by my girlfriend’s mom who made it specifically for us, so you bet your ass I ate it. 

And that’s just how it is when I travel, especially when I travel to Malaysia where I’m writing today’s fuckery.

But there’s no way I wouldn’t travel just because I can’t partake in my normal bird food routine - no way. 

During my 4 weeks here I will understand and accept  that eating totally plant-based is off the table. 

I will try my best to eat as vegan as possible, and when it’s not possible, I will be okay. 

I will gain some weight, my skin won’t be as clear, and I won’t feel as refreshed, energized and awesome as I usually feel. 

And that’s okay, as soon as I get home I’ll plant my ass in my kitchen and go back to my routine of eating unprocessed whole plant foods, with little exception. 

Here’s the thing. If I didn’t make the choice to let go of guilt and giving myself shit when I don’t eat 100% plant-based, 100% of the time, I would be bandaged up in a coma right now because of self inflicted berating. 

But scolding ourselves and feeling guilty for not being perfect doesn’t change anything. It isn’t the motivating factor in making different choices. It makes us feel like shit, and it will carry over into other areas of our life. 

Being mean to ourselves is a waste of time and the only way to stop being mean to ourselves is to make the choice to release it and let it go. 

When you’re ready to get back on track with healthy eating, you will find your way. 

Getting back on track is always harder than getting off track, that’s for damn sure. 

That’s one of the reasons why I’m diligent about my plant-based eating when I’m back home in my normal routine. 

I like to make things as easy for myself as possible and for the most part, eating a healthy plant-based diet all the time makes it ridiculously easy to stay on track and not get swayed by heroin in pie form. 

But I wouldn’t have been able to come to this resolve had I not gone back and forth between eating really healthy and not so healthy in the beginning of my plant-based journey. 

Going back and forth between plant-based and not plant-based (or even vegan) is normal when transiting to a plant-based diet. It’s just part of the process. 

It’s like sex - we all had fumbles in the beginning, but we kept at it until we nailed it. (as a side note, I’m extremely pleased with that sentence)

The bottom line is this - be nice to yourself. Be gentle with yourself. Enjoy your process and learn from it. And the next time you give yourself shit, pretend you’re talking to your best friend and check yourself. If you wouldn’t talk to your bestie the way you talk to yourself, shut that shit down, and lovingly move on. 

There’s no need to make the process of changing a huge part of your life (how and what you eat) any harder than it has to be. 

Are we good? 

Welcome to 2016 - it’s going to be an awesome fucking year. 

Enrollment for my 5 Week New Year’s Food Reset closes on Tuesday, January 5th. That’s 3 days away. 

This reset is the very best way to get back on track with healthy eating after the holidays. We start next week. Goodbye booze, sugar and bloat, and hello energy and glowing skin. 

AND...I was going to wait to announce this when the reset starts, but I'm spilling the beans.  

Everyone in my 5 Week New Year's Food Reset is getting a one hour private coaching session with me for exactly zero dollars. This applies to everyone who signs up now until the 5th and everyone who is already enrolled in the program. 

A one hour private food coaching session with me costs $150, so you can do the math. 

If you want a partner for the program, and can’t find one, email me, I will find you a partner and you can save some cash. support@cleanfooddirtygirl.com 

Otherwise, bounce over here to secure your spot.

Today’s recipe is damn good. It's simple to make and you can use it lots of different ways. 

Drizzle it over fresh fruit, put it on toast, add it to your morning oatmeal, pour it over pancakes - you get the idea. 

Maple Tangerine Cashew Cream 

1/2 cup raw cashews (60g) soaked for 10 minutes in water, up to overnight. 
1/2 cup fresh squeezed tangerine juice (120ml // use oranges if you can’t find tangerines)
1 teaspoon 100% maple syrup 

• Drain the cashews and place them in the blender along with the tangerine juice and the maple syrup. 
• Blend on high for several minutes until the mixture is extremely creamy and smooth. 

I hope you have a happy weekend. May it be filled with talking nicely to yourself. 

XO

support@cleanfooddirtygirl.com 

If you have friends or family who are still hungover and need some reviving, will you do me a solid and forward them this email? They can sign up for their very own Saturday fuckery right here.