I Can Be Bribed Into Weight Management!
Don’t you hate it when you end up spontaneously spending a lot of calories on something that is soooo not worth it to you?
One of the ways I have managed to pull myself up short and get myself to prevent a really useless and regrettable spontaneous unplanned binge is to pause for one split second and ask myself what I would really like to have instead. If I knew in advance that I was about to spend some ridiculous amount of calories (the truth that I can rarely own up to of course before the damage is done!), what would I really like to have?
By way of example, one night just like many others after a long work day, I found myself standing in the kitchen, coat still on, spoon in one hand and jar of Skippy Super Chunk in the other – not an unusual site in my kitchen come 11 pm. I had already had a couple of tablespoons (although the stated plan was one tablespoon) one teency-tiny nut chunk at a time naturally, and could feel that familiar feeling coming over me…that I want 10 peanut butter sandwiches right now and nothing less will do!
At that moment in time, through some grace not of my own making I’m sure, I had that moment of clarity where I was able to ask myself, “If I am going to spend hundreds of calories (and let’s face it, that’s the history here), what would I really like to have?” I really thought about it for a minute or two, and came up with this: I would like a Monte Cristo sandwich! Go figure, right? But, that really was what I would have picked if I could stop myself and really had my druthers.
Did I feel like going out for it now? Not really, but I did make a deal with myself to go out and have just exactly that on Friday, two days away. I could delay the gratification that long – especially to have what was at that time one of my favorite indulgences – the perfect combination of salty and sweet, crunchy and mushy.
I did just that – that Friday and for the next couple of Fridays as a matter of fact. I planned for it and fit it into my budget, so I could also eat it guiltlessly. And you know what is really interesting? That was a couple of years ago, and I don’t think I’ve had another since.
One could ask why would I even keep something in the house that I feel that way about – a legitimate question. With most things that I can’t manage to eat reasonably – like pastry or donuts, I just accept it and never bring them into my house. When I have them, it is usually outside my home in individual portions.
Historically I have had a love/hate relationship with peanut butter and, finding myself unwilling to completely part with it, have tried many things like keeping the Skippy in the far end of my trap door attic to make it inconvenient enough avoid trouble. After two years of not owning peanut butter at all – a moratorium of sorts, I currently have Organic All Natural peanut butter only in my office (where I have a great history of reasonable behavior) in individual containers with cut up celery. Sometimes a strategy that didn’t work in the past, will work down the road, or vice versa for that matter. So far, the peanut butter thing in the office is working, but I’m making no guarantees. Abuse it, I lose it!
Of course, the real key to this whole thing is to have a better plan already in place so as to not arrive at that 11 pm-standing-in-the-kitchen-with-the-jar-of-peanut-butter-in-hand thing to begin with, but I’m still a work in progress too.
Begin your final weight loss journey now…
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