When you decide to get healthy and clean up your eating, sooner or later you’re faced with feeling like you’re “missing out.”

People around you are eating your favorite sugar or junk food – as often as they want, in whatever quantities they want.

You see them drinking alcohol or soda, like you used to, and feel excluded from the connection you felt when you raised a glass yourself.

It’s pretty normal to feel that way when you’re making changes, whether it’s with your food or something else.

Plus we get emotionally attached to our favorite foods and beverages. We associate them with tradition as well as fun, comfort, connection, and a bunch of other emotions.

We may also be addicted to them, and have to fight withdrawal symptoms and cravings.

I get it.

But in my book, it’s not an excuse to give up and go back to your old ways.

So here’s what you do.

Next time you feel like you’re “missing out” by not eating or drinking the junk you used to eat or drink, ask yourself this:

“What am I missing out on when I DO eat or drink that?”

And better yet, “What do I have to gain by keeping that stuff out of my pie hole?”

So often we focus on what we’re missing out on if we don’t eat the junk food.

But what will you miss out on if you DO eat it?

Will you miss out on another 10 or 20 years with your grandkids?

Will you miss out on having the energy and strength to walk around Disneyland without having to stop and nap on a bench every hour?

Will you miss out on diabetic neuropathy in your feet?

Seriously, grab a piece of paper and draw a line down the center.

On the left side, jot down what you’ll miss out on if you DO keep eating the unhealthy stuff.

On the right side, write down all the things you have to GAIN by sticking with your Code Red foods, rules, water, and sleep.

For example, you get to finally feel BETTER.

You get to wake up in the morning without icepick joint pain in your hands and knees.

You get to clothes shop knowing you’ll always be able to find something you like AND that fits.

Make your list, writing down as many things as you can think of in both columns.

Then put it up someplace you can see it. Take a picture of it with your phone and make it a habit to look at it every morning after you get on the scale.

If you’re in a Code Red Facebook group, share a picture of your list (or type it up in a post).

Never let yourself forget why you’re doing this, okay? Keep going until this new way forward becomes your new normal.

You have what it takes, and you absolutely are worth it.