the chocolate battle
You have made a commitment to yourself to stay on target. You’ve signed a contract with your favorite support group and been in a restrictive routine for three weeks and you haven’t fallen out of favor. You are determined and believe that you are capable of achieving your goal. You remind yourself how fantastic you are doing and how proud you are that you lost nine pounds of fat in just three weeks.
Comfortable with daily willpower tests, you prepare for a night of food and entertainment. You run through your mind how proud you are of yourself and how simple this new way of living has been so far. You praise yourself for drinking eight or more glasses of water and recording every bite that has passed your lips. You compliment yourself by developing new eating habits and checking in with your favorite support group on a regular basis. You feel sure of yourself and your commitment.
So, with confidence on her part, she makes a conscious decision to make the birthday cake for her husband’s birthday party that she got engaged to three months ago. Without worries, you take out the necessary ingredients, turn on the oven and start. As you mix the cake, you catch yourself before licking the dough off your finger. So, lest you fall further into temptation, you rush the utensils and bowl to the sink to wash away the temptation. You wipe your forehead, pour yourself a cup of herbal tea, grab the latest issue of O Magazine, and curl up in your overstuffed chair in the living room. Feeling quite pleased with his achievement, he smiles and continues reading O Magazine from cover to cover. Before you know it, it’s time to get ready for the party.
The doorbell rings it’s their company they each have a plate to share for the potluck for the birthday party. The cake is sitting in the center of the table and it looks delicious. She’s calling you, “try me, try me.” you resist To distract yourself, you take a piece of gum from the cupboard and put it in your mouth. Everyone who walks into the house admires how great you look and then sees the cake.
They start bragging about how delicious it looks. They make comments like, “Oh, I can’t wait to bite into that.” You start arguing with yourself. “One piece won’t make a difference.” One piece will lead to another and another, you know. that’s how you operate.” You listen to yourself, you feel like Jan in the Brady Bunch as she struggles between her evil side and her angelic side. You know what you have to do, but it gets harder and harder. It gets more and more tempting. You walk into the living room and start visiting and fiddling with gifts.Then, your size two, never had to worry about weight in her entire life, a friend walks up to you and starts sharing her vacation experiences with you.She says how he ate the most unbelievably delicious chocolate moose the night before he came home.
You find your mind fixed on the cake in the center of the table. You have a knot in your neck trying to catch a glance. There it is, calling you. You’re so focused on the cake that you completely miss the joke your husband just told and you have the crowd in hysterics. Her three-year-old son starts tugging at his skirt, begging him to eat. Your guests begin to do the same and line up. They fill your plates with delicious entrees and sides and there you are with a 3 ½ ounce chicken breast, your cup of steamed green beans and an Akmak cracker. You forget about the birthday party and start throwing yourself a pity party. You start to sulk and start a conversation with yourself. You block your guests completely. You only hear the background music of crunching, chewing, slurping and swallowing. Your self-indulgent inner dialogue echoes the words, “Go ahead, eat, go ahead, what harm will it do?” You want to hit yourself on the head to make it stop. Your overwhelming and self-absorbed desire to eat causes you to ignore the fact that we are fighting a war and that some of your friends have children in the midst of which it loses importance. All you care about is the war you’re fighting in your head.
“Poor me, poor me,” you yell at yourself. It doesn’t matter that her best friend Doris told her that her son Jacob was injured and that he is being transported to a hospital in the United States at this very moment. The only thing you can focus on is the chocolate cake on the table. The only thought you have is to grab the knife and scoop out every last crumb you can.
You convince yourself that those crumbs won’t hurt you. The temptation becomes increasingly difficult to resist and just as you are about to sneak a bite, your husband comes up behind you and whispers a sweet nothing in your ear. Saved by a whisper, but the rescue only lasts a minute. Then you start cutting again and the battle in your head begins once again. The fight is in full force. The twins go for it. One that repeats the words “go ahead, take a bite, a little bite won’t hurt.” The other imploring you not to.
Then a nasty voice yells from the other room, “Excellent cake, you really should try it.” The good twin chimes in with “don’t do it, don’t do it”. Then the evil voice speaks: “Cut yourself a piece of cake, after everything you did, you should enjoy the fruits of your labor.” “Yes, but what about the fruits of my labor for weeks,” explains the good twin. Your optimistic side and your pessimistic side fight.
You know what I’m talking about, the side that encourages and encourages you, the side that keeps you going so you can be successful. The side that knows you must remain in control and not waver in your commitment. The part of you helps keep you in control. The side of you that desperately wants the positive outcome and realizes that you must reject the temptations. That part of you that provides you with knowledge, you must make some sacrifices if you want to reach your ideal weight. The side of that has convinced you that you have to make some sacrifices if you want to change, if you want to achieve something. Nothing comes without a price tag. Something we should all know.
Since losing weight and creating change is more about changing bad clothes, it’s vital that you surround yourself with people with lots of positive energy. It is equally important that you believe that you can achieve your weight loss goal or any goal, because if you don’t believe it. The simple truth is that you won’t. Therefore, I emphasize the importance of positive self-talk and true engagement.
