But no more – was out with James both Monday and last night. So no blogging here! But I had a great time – he’s a really cool guy. Too bad he lives in Arizona and I live in Alaska.
Not much of a post today either – I’m working on my nanowrimo book – I’m really really behind. But I wanted to let you know I haven’t forgotten you.
Happy Pre-Halloween!!
Yes, I am the girl who dresses up for Halloween at work – even if nobody else does, even if it’s the Friday before Halloween when Halloween falls on a weekend.
I can’t help it – I love dressing up!! How often can you wear a scarf as a belt, and a scarf as a headband, and a hat, and a ruffly shirt, and still look good.
This article is really thought provoking. Right now I really want a piece of Lindt Intense sea salt and I’m going to go get some in a moment (obviously, see yesterday’s post) but this article made me stop and think. Junk food is supposedly as addictive as heroin. That is pretty intense. Also probably an overstatement, but junk food has an obvious proponent — which would make it really hard to get over — that Heroin doesn’t: You need to eat.
The third hardest thing I have done in my life is give up high fructose corn syrup. (I’m big on lists. 1. My father’s death. 2. Going without picking for 21 days. 3. Giving up HFCS. 4. Graduating college.) Though in the modern world it is pretty much impossible to completely give up HFCS, I don’t drink soda anymore and I very seldom eat processed food. I am planning on getting a small bag of candy corn for Halloween but before that, the last HFCS I’ve had….ages ago. Especially if you are a binge eater like me, junk food is engineered to go beyond tempting to irresistible.
On the one hand, I get why companies like Mars or Frito Lays do it, and obviously HFCS isn’t the entire issue, profits are king in a capitalist system. Not complaining, the system works for most. But, and this is a big but, I really hope that some day profits stop outweighing karma, or the golden rule, or whatever the heck you want to call the human drive to do the right thing.
When it comes down to it – large companies are intentionally addicting the population to harmful substances for profits. People think that obesity is a matter of will-power. It isn’t.
Or can I?
Deprivation diets don’t work. Say it with me: Deprivation diets don’t work. Once again: Deprivation diets don’t work. I can’t hear you: Deprivation diets don’t work.
Glad I got that out of my system.
Now I’m not advocating for you to go out and eat whatever you like and call it a diet. Oh wait, actually I am. I’m not advocating for you to go out and eat as much as you like of whatever you like. The trick, of course, is moderation. The less cliche trick is quality.
I’m serious about the quality thing. Two squares of Lindt 70 or 85 will satisfy me more than an entire bar of Hershey’s Special Dark. And then two squares of the good stuff has 110 calories, the full bar of the waxy yick stuff has 180 calories. Of course, if you were to eat the whole bar of the Lindt chocolate you’d have a problem (550 calories) but you won’t do that. Because that would be far too much chocolate.
The same thing goes for pretty much any unhealthy food I can think of. Jonesing for a burger? Get one! But don’t go to McD’s, head over to your nice little sit down place, eat half the burger and substitute salad for fries. Unless of course you want fries, in which case you order a side of fries and split it with a friend. Let the friend have most. That way you get less calories and your friend gets fatter, making you look thinner in comparison.
If you bake make cupcakes instead of a full cake and then bring them to work. You’ll be instantly popular and you won’t overindulge. Make cookies for friends or lovers. So long as it isn’t spouses because spouses tend to live with you. The idea is to indulge and then get it away from you.
Whatever your method is, I cannot stress it enough: Do not let cravings sit. They will just intensify. Satisfy your craving at first opportunity and you will eat less.