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 dedicated yourself to a restrictive routine for three weeks and haven’t fallen from grace. You are determined and believe that you are capable of achieving your goals. You remind yourself how awesome your job is and how proud you are of losing nine pounds of fat in only three weeks.
Comfortable with the tests of willpower that present themselves daily, you prepare for an evening of food and entertainment. You race through your mind how proud you are of yourself and how easy this new way of living has been so far. You praise yourself for drinking eight or more glasses of water and biting every bite that passes your lips. You supplement on your own to develop new eating habits and weigh in regularly with your favorite support group. You are feeling confident in yourself and in your commitment.
So, with confidence on your side, you take a conscious decision to make a birthday cake for your husband’s birthday party, which you had promised to do three months ago. Without a worry, just grab out the ingredients you need, turn on the oven and get started. You catch yourself before you lick the batter off your finger as you mix the cake. So, no more giving in to temptation as you put the pot and bowl in 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 pleased with your accomplishment, you smile and continue 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 your company. They each have a dish to share for the birthday party potluck. The cake is sitting in the middle of the table and looks delicious. It is calling you, “Taste me, taste me.” You protest To distract yourself you reach for a piece of gum from the cupboard and pop it in your mouth. Everyone who enters the house compliments you on how beautiful you look and then they look at the cake.
They start boasting how delicious it looks. They make comments like, “Oh, I can’t wait to bite into it.” You start arguing with yourself. “One piece won’t make any difference.” The other side argues that one piece will make a difference, because one piece will lead to another and another, you know it, that’s how you work.” Hear for yourself, you feel like Jan on The Brady Bunch as she battles between her evil side and her divine side. You know what you have to do, but it’s getting more and more difficult. It is becoming more and more attractive. You go into the living room and start meeting and fiddling with the gifts. Then your size two, never had to worry about weight in her entire life, friend comes up to you and starts sharing her holiday experiences with you. She goes on about how she had the most incredibly delicious chocolate mousse the night before she returned home.
You find your mind fixated on the cake in the center of the table. You get a lump in your neck trying to catch a glance. There it sits, calling to you. You’re so focused on the cake that you completely miss the joke your husband told and the crowd rolling into hysteria. Your three-year-old starts tugging at your skirt, begging for food. Your guests begin to follow suit and line up. They pile their plates with mouth-watering entrees and side dishes 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 sulking and talking to yourself. You block your guests completely. All you hear is background music of crunching, chewing, slurping, and gulping. Your inner self-dialogue echoes the words, “Eat further, move further, what harm would it do?” You want to hit yourself in the head to make it stop. Your self-absorbed, insatiable desire to eat causes you to ignore the fact that we are fighting a war and the children among some of your friends become insignificant. You only care about the war you are waging in your head.
“Poor me, poor me,” you cry to yourself. Never mind that your best friend Doris just shared with you that her son Jacob was injured and is being taken to a hospital in the States at this very moment. The only thing you can focus on is the chocolate cake on the table. You only have one idea to grab the knife and sneak out every piece you can to escape.
You assure yourself those pieces won’t hurt. Resisting the temptation becomes more and more difficult and just as you are about to take a bite, your husband sneaks up behind you and whispers a sweet something in your ear. A Whisper escapes, but the rescue only lasts a minute. Then you start cutting again and the battle starts once again in your head. The struggle is in full force. The twins are going at it. One word repeats “Go ahead take a bite, a little bite won’t hurt.” The other begs you not to do this.
Just then an obnoxious voice from the other room shouts, “Fantastic cake, you should really try it.” Good Twin chimes “Don’t do it, don’t do it.” Then the evil voice speaks, “Cut yourself a piece of cake, after you have made everything, you must enjoy the fruits of your labor.” “Yeah, but what a nice twin to tell about the fruits of my weeks’ labor. The optimistic side of you and the pessimistic side of you compete against it.
You know what I’m talking about, the side that encourages and pumps you up, the side that allows you to move forward so that you can be successful. The side that knows you must stay in control and not waver from your commitment. Part of you helps stay in control. The side of you that wants a positive outcome and feels that you must reject temptations. The part of you that gives you the wisdom that you have to make some sacrifices if you want to achieve your ideal weight. That side has convinced you that if you want to change something, if you want to achieve something, you have to sacrifice something. Nothing comes without a price tag. Something we all should know.
Because losing weight and making changes is more about replacing bad habits, it’s important that you surround yourself with high-energy, positive people. It’s just as important that you believe that you can achieve your weight loss goal or any goal, because if you don’t believe in it. The simple truth is that you won’t get it. Thus, I stress the importance of positive self-talk and true commitment.
Source by Lorna Stremcha
