When it Comes to Food Temptations, Caution is the Name of the Game
Jodi Davis
| 3 min read
What a great week this has been as I’ve had the privilege to meet several people around Michigan who made the decision to start living healthier in 2012. I can’t even begin to add up all the pounds lost by employees at each of the work sites I’ve visited, but I know that the number is in the hundreds! I see lots of smiling faces and hear plenty of success stories, all resulting from making healthier choices, on a daily basis. When I hear the words, “It really wasn’t that hard to do and I love how much better I feel now,” I can’t help but agree.
It really isn’t that hard to start living healthier, but it does require a bit of self-control. I discussed this with several people this week and they agreed that there are times when it’s easier than others. I agree with that too. Yes, I enjoy food. I can admit that. I want to eat right, and doing that takes willpower.
It Never Ends
I know how it is. I’m an average, ordinary person and I won’t claim that I always eat perfect and healthy foods. I allow myself to go to fast food restaurants on occasion, but I am careful about what and how much I eat, utilizing my self-control. The same goes for any type of party, event, festivity or family function where food is the focus (which seems to be about every single one of them!). I’m just cautious.
I’m also cautious about all those snacks that I know many of us are tempted by throughout the day. We can all admit that self-control is needed when you walk into the workplace only to see a big box of donuts just there for the taking. Then there is the official office candy dish you pass by countless times per day along with the vending machines that offer everything from sugary soda to caramel-covered buttery candy and greasy potato chips. And there’s self-control that you try to use with the coworker whose daughter is selling boxes of cookies as a fundraiser and you feel obligated to purchase a few since they bought two boxes of cookie dough from your child. It never ends.
I have to let myself occasionally enjoy these items; otherwise I would feel deprived. I am cautious, but it isn’t that hard to do. This is what I have told myself since the year 2001, when I made the decision to start living healthier: “One bite tastes the same as 20.“
Split the Difference
It really works — especially when you know how many calories you save doing this. I was speaking to a gentleman yesterday about this as he explained that he just had to purchasesome cookies from his daughter, it wouldn’t be right not to. But he didn’t feel it would be right to eat these cookies knowing that each of them had 70 calories. I told him that my daughter sold the same cookies years ago and while we also wanted to enjoy the taste of the cookies, we didn’t want all the calories. So what we did was to break one of those little cookies in half and each of us would enjoy the one bite. We knew that if we ate the entire cookie it would taste just the same as a piece of it, so we would simple take the one bite and know we split the calorie content in half.
He thought this was a great idea and will be implementing immediately… love that!
This concept works with hundreds of items you will be tempted by throughout the day — even those tiny chocolate morsels in the office candy dish. ONE BITE TASTES THE SAME AS TWENTY. Savor it, and savor the great feelings that result when you make healthier choices.
It really isn’t that hard to do and I think you’ll love how you feel, truly.
Photo by Rocpoc
