It’s a battle of the mind, not the mouth

I promised I’d do this today, but time just got away from me, so instead, I’m doing it tonight. In my blog articles about Cinch Diet (click here to read) and my follow up about eating out (click here to read), I mentioned that losing weight and choosing foods to eat is a battle of the mind, not the mouth. The mouth is the result of what your mind has chosen to do. With that, I’ll tell you a little story.

This past Valentine’s Day, my husband made chicken parmesan. It’s a meal we don’t eat but a few times a year but it’s delicious nonetheless. The problem was that he was in town for a visit and was leaving on the 14th, so we celebrated on the 13th. We had a ton of left over, fried chicken and I most certainly wasn’t going to eat it, he wasn’t going to be here to eat it, and I didn’t want to throw it away. Colby made the suggestion to freeze it and he’d eat it when he moves back (March 4th! yay!). So, into the freezer they went. EVERY SINGLE DAY since then, I’ve been incredibly tempted to eat them, but I’ve stayed away from my freezer because of it. Well, one day last week, I reached into the freezer to set out some meat so it could thaw for the next day and one of those darn chickens reared its beautiful head at me and, I tell you, it was almost audible the way it said, “EAT ME!!!!!!” I could see it, taste it, smell it, etc. I imagined that beautiful piece of fried chicken on a bed of pasta covered in marinara, mozzarella, and basil. I reached for it, but then hesitated. I told myself, “NO! You can’t do this to yourself! You’ve worked too hard!” I began closing the freezer, but again, the chicken called out to me in a loud voice saying, “SMOTHER ME IN CHEESE AND EAT ME!!!!” I opened the freezer door a little more and grabbed for it again, but yet again, my broiled-chicken devil siting on my right shoulder swatted my hand away and scolded me for trying to go after it a second time. Ultimately, the broiled-chicken devil won the war and I ended up making broiled shrimp for dinner instead.

It’s hard. Every meal decision can be the toughest decision of your day and in a moment of weakness, you can give in and then spend the rest of your day beating yourself up. You have to retrain your brain to be strong and resist this type of behavior. I’m certainly not a psychologist, but I understand how I’ve felt when I’ve failed, especially when it’s time and time again.

There are no magic words I can say that will stop this problem. It will likely be something you’ll struggle with for the rest of your life, but you’ve got to have a conversation within yourself every time you reach for the fried chicken, the cake, the donut, the pasta, etc and imagine as though you’ve already eaten it. When you’ve done that, you can feel that guilt and shame all over before the food has even touched your mouth. Right there, my blog readers, is where you win the battle. Win the battle in your brain and your mouth won’t be as big of a problem.