The Inexactness of Exactness
I am a perfectionist. I know I don’t always seem like one, but, if I’m going to do something, I like to be as perfect as possible at it. You know where I’m going with this. It’s impossible to be perfect when it comes to developing new habits. After all, what are the new habits supposed to be? How can I be good at it if I’m making it up myself?
So here’s the thing, I like weighing and counting and measuring my food, but it gets to be a chore after a while. Not that I’m really complaining, but then comes “going out to eat” and maybe going to a friend’s house, or something, and I’m supposed to estimate. Oh no! I just don’t know how to estimate. Then, it puts me into procrastination mode. It’s like a freezing up, so that I can’t deal with deciding how much of something I ate.
And then there are things like mashed potatoes. Now, I can look in the Weight Watcher’s book and see that a half cup is 3 points, which is easy. The other option is to weigh all the potatoes each time we make them at home, then be sure that whoever is making them (not usually me) measures exactly how much milk goes in, etc. THEN figure out how many half cup servings that is so I can figure out the points. Whew! I’ll bet you even got tired out just reading about it! We don’t use a recipe for such things. It will be different each time, so I would have to go through that exercise each time.
Then there are the “half points” or lack thereof. My favorite breakfast, which I’ll share soon, is actually 3.5 points, if I take the points value of each item and then add them together manually. Now, with e-tools, it’s 4 points. Not that it’s so bad, but there’s a certain satisfaction in having a half point left a the end of the day.
So, I have to get used the fact that there’s a certain amount of “figuring” that goes into it, and there’s no way for it to be perfect, by any means. I’m going to accept that, even if I don’t like it. I’ll get used to it some day!
What Do You Crave?
I’ve tried the usual methods for handling cravings. You know, just try to wait twenty minutes -it’ll go away if it’s a craving instead of hunger. Or take a walk – really?
Truth is, I usually already know it’s a craving, not hunger. I don’t have too wait twenty minutes. The entire twenty minutes I would just be dwelling on the chocolate. Or the potato chips. Or whatever. I wouldn’t even be able to sit around for twenty minutes. I even tried using a timer, for pete’s sake!
As I have tried to say already, this time is definitely going to be different. I’m calling out the big guns. Here are two alternative methods – hope one works for you.
Method One
I once learned a technique for handling pain. Rather than trying to ignore the pain or try to make it go away, one would connect with the problem and really LOOK at it with one’s mind. What does it look like? Does it have a shape – round, square or amoeba-like? Maybe it’s 3-dimensional – a cube or sphere? Does it have color – a single color or many? Does it move at all or stay in one place? If you keep looking at it, it may change color or shape. Stay on it and note the changes.
I think you get the picture. This method really works wonderfully. After a while, the pain actually goes away.
What does all this have to do with chocolate or potato chip desire? Try this method to handle cravings. Try not to dwell on WHAT you crave, but on the actual FEELING. How does the feeling actually look? Does it have shape, color, size? Does it maybe have texture? Force yourself to look at the feeling.
It won’t like you looking at it, and it will go away – usually for good.
Method Two
I heard this one once and really liked it. This is also a way of dealing with pain.
Picture a big radio knob (okay, so radios don’t have knobs anymore – how about the volume thing-y on your i-pod) and envision the volume setting as if it is a setting for the amount of pain you feel. How loud is the volume? If it’s very loud, you will probably want to turn it down quickly. Instead, turn it down just a little bit. Was it enough? No? Turn it down a little bit more. Keep doing this slowly until the volume is very low.
Many people have had success with this method for pain, and I think it can work for cravings too. It requires a bit of quiet time, though. Just picture the knob, and begin to turn it down. Remember that you are turning the knob down on the FEELING not the “thing that you crave”.
This topic is HOT!
Funny, that as I thought of this topic for today, I happened to receive an e-mail just this morning from e-diets on this very topic. Please feel free to have a look at what they say – you’ll see that it’s really the “same ol’ same ol’”. I, for one, am glad to try something different, even if it’s kind of a play on “same ol’ same ol’”.