The battle of chocolate
You have made a commitment to yourself to stay on target. You have signed a contract with your favorite support group and have been in a restrictive routine for three weeks and have not fallen out of favor. You are determined and you believe that you are capable of achieving your goal. You remind yourself of how great you are doing and how proud you are to have shed nine pounds of fat in just three weeks.
Comfortable with daily tests of willpower, he prepares for an evening of food and entertainment. You review in your mind how proud you are of yourself and how simple this new way of life has been so far. He praises himself for drinking eight or more glasses of water and recording every bite that has passed his lips. You complement yourself to develop new eating habits and collaborate with your favorite support group on a regular basis. You feel confident about yourself and your commitment.
So, with confidence on her side, she makes the conscious decision to bake the birthday cake for her husband’s birthday party who got engaged three months ago. No worries, take out the necessary ingredients, turn on the oven and get started. As he mixes the cake, he grabs onto himself before licking the batter off his finger. So, in order not to be tempted anymore, rush the utensils and bowl to the sink to eliminate the temptation. You wipe your forehead, pour yourself a cup of herbal tea, grab the latest from O Magazine, and curl up in your overstuffed easy chair in the living room. Feeling satisfied with his achievement, he smiles and continues reading O Magazine cover to cover. Before you know it, it’s time to get ready for the party.
The bell rings, it is their company, each of them has a plate to share for the birthday party food. The cake is in the center of the table and it looks delicious. It’s calling you, “test me, test me.” You resist. To distract himself, he takes a piece of gum out of the closet and puts it in his mouth. Everyone who enters the house admires how good you look and then they see the cake.
They start to brag 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.” The other side argues that one piece will make a difference, because one piece will lead to another and another, you know, that’s how you work. “You listen to yourself, you feel like Jan in Brady Bunch when he fights between his evil side and his Angelic side. You know what you have to do, but it’s getting harder and harder. It’s getting more and more tempting. You walk into the living room and start visiting and playing with gifts. Then her size two, she never had to worrying about weight in your entire life, a friend walks up to you and starts sharing her vacation experiences with you, explaining how she ate the most incredibly delicious chocolate moose the night before she returned home.
Find your mind fixed on the cake in the center of the table. You feel a knot in your neck when trying to see it. There he sits, calling you. You’re so focused on the cake that you completely miss the joke your husband just told and it makes the crowd jump in hysteria. Your three-year-old starts pulling at your skirt, begging to eat. Your guests start to do the same and line up. They pile their plates with delicious entrees and side dishes and there you are with a 3 ½ ounce chicken breast, your cup of steamed green beans, and an Akmak cookie. You forget about the birthday party and start throwing yourself a pity party. You start to sulk and strike up a conversation with yourself. You block your guests completely. You only hear the background music of chewing, chewing, sipping and swallowing. His self-indulgent self-talk 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. His overwhelming desire to eat, absorbed in himself, causes him to ignore the fact that we are waging a war and some of his friends have children in the middle of which he no longer matters. All you care about is the war you are fighting in your head.
“Poor me, poor me,” you scream to yourself. Never mind that your best friend Doris has just shared with you that her son Jacob was injured and 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 sneak away every crumb you can.
You convince yourself that those crumbs won’t hurt you. The temptation becomes harder and harder to resist and just as you are about to take a bite, your husband comes up from behind 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 more. The fight is in full force. The twins are doing it. One that repeats the words “go ahead, take a bite, a small bite won’t hurt.” The other imploring you not to do it.
Then a nasty voice yells from the other room: “Great 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 all that 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. The optimistic side of you and the pessimistic side of you fight.
You know what I’m talking about, the side that encourages and encourages you, the side that allows you to move forward so that you can succeed. The side that knows it must stay in control and not waver in its commitment. The part of you helps you stay in control. The side of you that desperately wants the positive outcome and realizes that you must discard the temptations. That part of you that provides you with the knowledge 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 that we should all know.
Because losing weight and making changes is more about changing bad habits, it is vital that you surround yourself with people with a high level 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. The simple truth is that you won’t make it. Therefore, I emphasize the importance of positive self-talk and true engagement.
