The Power of "Little" . . .

It's finally Wednesday - the day I look most forward to every week. Mind you, I don't wish my life away; but, Wednesdays are the days I seem to be able to check the most things off as "done" on my to-do list. Things like writing a schedule of what my next week's submission obligations are, lining up and/or confirming my appointments for the next few days and researching community resources which I can either support or benefit from - and, ideally, to be able to do both. As you know, life is nothing less than an ongoing project. So, Wednesday is a busy day for me. How about you? 

Now that I've told you what to expect out of my day today, I'll also tell you what not to expect, by example, from my future Tuesday nights. I confess. Last night was not so

good for me as I definitely yielded to temptation. And, even as I knew what I was doing, I made a conscious decision to ignore the voice of reason. This would be the voice that tells you you're putting too much salt in your system, or the one that questions just how many nutrients - vs. calories - you can get out of that ... half, regular-sized bag of barbecued potato chips. Yes, that would be the one. And, I'm sure, whether I knew it or not, I looked pretty much like the little girl pictured here. And, I emphasize the word "little," because that's about how much effort it takes to ignore what Agatha Christie's beloved mystery detective, Poirot," so accurately described as "the little grey cells." Little.  Little effort to ignore, and little effort to heed. 

Let's face it, identifying triggers to bad behavior and replacing them with positive substitutes is hard work - but it can be done. And, once you've done the groundwork, it takes little effort to follow through  to achieve resulting good eating behaviors.  Like every "Monday-morning quarterback," we can learn from our mistakes simply by looking at the "tapes" a little closer. In my case, two things were going on: 1) My day was so chaotic, I waited too long to eat between meals, and  2) when the urge to eat something - anything - appeared, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And, promptly turned down the wrong aisle . . .  of the grocery store.  Big mistake!  And, guess what? I'm pretty sure the taste-factor in that half-bag of potato chips hadn't fully matured until  about 10:30 last night. There it is: A perfect example of binge-eating, over-eating and night-eating all rolled into one episode.  Not good.

So, there are a few lessons to be learned here.  If you have the luxury, try to slow down your day - just a little bit. Plan for the worst: Grab that apple as you run out the door. Try, as hard as you can, to forget that television commercial that is so skillfully designed to flash like a neon sign in front of you everywhere you go until you finally succumb to its temptation. But, most importantly, take your fingers out of your ears, open your eyes and listen to those little grey cells - also known as the voice of reason - when they're doing their best to remind you to do what's best for you. Agatha Christie would be proud.  Copyright © 1/1/2015 -      , CB, Bed Warrior