I have to admit, changing such ingrained and entrenched patterns of behaviour that have been present within me for so long isn’t all a picnic. And if it were, I’d probably eat most of the hamper.
I’ve just learnt something else though. Another food I find hard to resist if they’re in the fridge is Indian snacks – especially vegetable samosas from Asda, which my son and I fight for.
There were three mini-samosas and three mini-onion bhajis left over today, after my son had the others for his tea last night. For much of the day, my thoughts were that I had to save them for my son (but secretly knowing I’ll give him a jacket potato because I’ll slowly munch my way through them).
In the end, just before m’young laddio came home from school, I thought I’ll have ‘just one’. I was hungry (I’ve worked out that I prefer five or six smaller meals a day, rather than three big ones) so I was keeping to that principle, but then I realised what else I was doing.
If I had ‘just one’ I knew it wouldn’t be enough, I wouldn’t be satisfied. I’d eat the rest of them, but not all at once, it would be each time I would give in to temptation. If I had ‘just one’ I’d still likely have a meal for my tea or dinner, and then of course, I’d have the Indian snacks on top of that.
So, I tried to get back to Beyond Chocolate. I decided I would put all of them on my plate, eat them, and acknowledge them. I did do (”It happened around sixteen hundred hours, officer”) and the good thing is; now I know that I’ve had my meal, I won’t be snacking on foods surreptitiously.
It’s not just that the foods that I really wanted to eat are not there anymore ‘tempting’ me away from a ‘proper meal,’ they were my proper meal, and I didn’t ‘binge’ on them (6 mini-snacks are hardly a binge), but I recognised what I was doing.
I do hope I’m on the right track though. I still haven’t plucked up the courage to stash my fridge with cream doughnuts.
You're doing so well, Andrea, I'm really impressed. (Speaking as someone who once ate six pakoras on the bus home from the supermarket.)
Posted by: Keris | September 18, 2006 at 11:52 AM