Self control. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to have in my entire life when it came to food. Why? Because honestly, I never have had it. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. It didn’t matter if it was good for me or not. I ate it. It didn’t honestly matter if I was hungry or not- if it looked good, I ate it. I was a full fledged member of the clean plate club. I remember so many meals where I was so stuffed that it was actually painful to sit still in my jeans. Oh I just wanted to put on stretch pants. I was so stuffed, I think I actually could have eaten myself sick, if that is possible.
The biggest challenge that comes when you try to live a healthy lifestyle (I hate calling it being on a diet) is ultimately self control. Not only is it self control to go to the gym, push yourself, etc, you need self control when it comes to food choices. To start with, the first part is the hardest to simply pick a salad over a juicy cheeseburger. Then, you have to have control when it comes to every little bit of the salad- down to the dressing! No matter what choice you make- self control is the biggest asset you can have if you want to make the right changes. Even if you pick a healthier food, you have to have the control to eat the correct serving portion. Especially with trigger foods- like cookies or pizza- it is just not easy to eat one. It’s a lot easier to eat 7 cookies or 5 slices, until you are so stuffed you are sick. But, if you had only eaten one- how much better would you feel? How much time will you have to spend to undo the damage of the 5 slices?
Having a strong self control is something I struggle with. Its why with a lot of items, I just have gone cold turkey with. Anything sweet, I keep out of my house. I also limit the junk food that comes in. It is just way to easy for me to sit down and eat an entire bag of chips without thinking. Despite having good self control 90 percent of the time, I have found it is just easier to remove the temptations.
Now, there are some situations where your self control is put to the test. Bread baskets and baskets of chips at Mexican restaurants are two of the biggest challenges I feel there are when it comes to dining out. They sit there, looming, and it is so hard just not to have one chip or one roll. But, if you are anything like me, one chip turns into about 40 leaving me feeling awful before I have even started my meal. I like to make situations like this a test. Now yes, over time, it has gotten very easy for me to sit down and not eat a chip, but at the beginning, it was really hard. So, instead of feeling deprived, I looked at it as a challenge to myself. Can I make it and not eat the chips? And you know what, I found out it was A LOT easier than I thought and hey- then I actually enjoyed my meal. Plus, I had the added bonus of feeling stronger because I was able to conquer the challenge.
Self control is not an easy thing to harness in the least. It is very difficult, especially in certain situations. My challenge to you is this… see if you can resist the bread basket. See if you can avoid eating 7 cookies and let me know how you feel once you’ve done it. I think it will give you more confidence in your ability to be healthy- more than you realize!
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