Temptation

There's a reason people wait until the end of the holiday season to start watching what they eat. It's the same reason many people gain weight around the holidays. There are so many treats and rich foods around, so much temptation, that we want to be able to gorge ourselves on gingerbread cookies and fudge and pie and fruitcake (has anyone ever actually eaten fruitcake?) and mashed potatoes and stuffed shells and whatever else our families and friends supply in seemingly unlimited quantities. After the holidays, we say, we will pay more attention to what we eat. During November and December  - nearly 20% of the year, by the way - there's just too much temptation. We cannot possibly be expected to limit ourselves when the culinary possibilities are so limitless. But after New Year's, when the cookies and pies aren't staring us in the face at every turn? Sure. Then, we can cut back. 

But there's a problem with that line of reasoning: What happens when we are tempted at the Valentine's Day party and the Memorial Day barbeque and the Fourth of July celebration and Susie's birthday party and all the other occasions where yummy food is just sitting out for the taking? If you're anything like me, you will eat and eat until you can't eat anymore. And then you'll have dessert. 

If we don't teach ourselves how to control ourselves in the face of temptation, then the next time temptation comes up we won't control ourselves. We will keep going back for those delicious (and terrible) frosted sugar cookies. We will sneak another serving of pie or an extra meatball or keep going back to those delicious caramels we keep in the cabinet for special occasions. 

As a teacher, especially when I taught elementary school, it was too much for me. Parents want to do something nice for teachers, and a lot of the time that nice thing turns out to be edible. So I would go home for winter vacation with armloads of empanadas, cookies, tamales, candy, tres leches cake - you name it. And my inexplicable guilt over wasting food would lead to my consuming every single bit of it. Even the stuff I didn't like. Even when I wasn't hungry. 

This year, I thought I'd made it through unscathed. Until one of my tutoring families gave me this awesome gift package. I opened it and saw my favorite awful candy of all time: candy corn. They knew how much I love candy corn, and they gave me a whole bag of it. As I turned over the crinkly bag in my hand, I wondered what I should do with this temptation. Candy corn is one of those things of which I could mindlessly eat an entire bag and then feel like crap, and then go looking for more. So at first, I thought,"I have to throw this away. I can't control myself."

And then I thought, "That's just ridiculous. I can do whatever I want."

So I decided candy corn would be my sweet treat and I would have one serving and put it away. And guess what. That's exactly what I did. Because I control what I do. Not candy corn, or coffee cake, or chewy Chips Ahoy. Just me. 

Since then I have resisted some urges and stepped out of some patterns that might seem small but are huge for me. It just took that little bit of self-talk and affirmation to remind myself who's in charge. 

What's your temptation? How can you kick that temptation in the face and take back control?