I have a pretty addictive personality. I've known this for a while. When I find something I like, I generally gorge myself on it until either a) I no longer have access to it, or b) my brain finally gets sick of it. Mostly this is true with food.
One of the most often-repeated rules of eating well is moderation. Moderation is key. I have never moderated anything in my life. It's feast or famine. Either I'm not eating cookies, or I'm eating all the cookies. I have never wanted a cookie in my life. And I don't understand the people who do.
My thinking is, the second cookie will be just as delicious as the first, so why wouldn't I eat it? And the third will be just as delicious as the second, the seventh just as delicious at the sixth, and so on until the bag is empty. This isn't always completely true. Sometimes around the twelve or thirteenth cookie I get a little tired. But never, ever after the first.
So, as a fat girl at heart, I've learned to treat cookies like alcoholics treat alcohol. Better not to have any at all, than to try to have a bit and walk away, which is damn near impossible. Once you get a taste...
It is true. Moderation is key. But I think it's a lost art overall. Indulgence or abstention are much more socially acceptable it seems. Maybe because they are more definable. I know what ALL is. I know what NONE is. But finding an agreed upon appropriate "SOME" or even more difficult "ENOUGH" is rough territory.
ReplyDeleteI've been on the abstention kick with quite a few things recently but I can't shake this feeling that I'm unnecessarily depriving myself...I hate that feeling. (and to be perfectly honest, I want a cookie!) Discipline will always be more difficult than avoidance, but discipline might at least get me some of what I want.
I think that's my issue with the indulgence v. abstention choice...I don't like the consequences of either very much. Guilt for having done too much...perhaps regret for having not...
either way, at this point, I'm totally eating a cookie today, thanks alot Puff.