Works In Progress

Since ordering and then over-eating on pizza is one of my biggest diet bug-bears, on May 21, I decided that I would not order pizza for delivery, no matter what, through the end of June. The goal was to break my pizza habit, with the long-term goal of making it a very rare indulgence.

This is an automatic, pre-dated post to remind me to let you know how it went. Stay tuned for an update!

You can read the original article here.

Everything I’ve written here has been part of a dance around the truth - some of it approaches it, but it all avoids the real issue: binge eating - why we (I) do it, and how to stop it.

I read the first half of a book about how to stop compulsive eating, last week. I stopped halfway because I realized that for whatever reason, reading that book was making things worse, not better (as so many self help books tend to do). Then a surprisingly enlightening, difficult conversation on Friday, followed by stuffing my face with pizza (though not delivered - I kept that promise, at least), egg rolls, and cake, and then finally, a moment of clarity in the shower when I was able to grab a fleeting thought, and suddenly I understood. Not everything, but a lot of things.

I look in the mirror, and I see a different person than I saw two days ago.

It’s all too personal, too important, and too fragile to continue to write about here. Thank you, to everyone who’s been so supportive. Maybe I’ll be able to write an epilogue, someday, and let you all know how it turned out.

For those who are interested, I occasionally post random thoughts on other topics here.

Best wishes, and happy cycling.

-Becky

I think maybe I didn’t say it very clearly in my last post. Good things take effort - yes.  But I wasn’t talking about the effort to learn a difficult skill, or build up rippling abs.  I was thinking of the effort it takes for almost everything that makes you happy, including things that will make you healthy.  Here’s more what I had in mind, a short list of other good things that take effort, however minimal:

• A relaxing bath
• Listening to music
• Going out with friends
• Setting up a barbecue
• Sex

Exercise and healthy eating, I think, belong in this category, because they can be inherently pleasant. But there’s a hurdle to get over with diet and exercise.  Article after article, expert after expert, send the message that we must, of course, want to eat fattening foot and not exercise, and how to overcome those desires.  That eating right and exercising is hard, and we need to force or trick ourselves into doing it!  So we confuse “effort” with “unpleasant.”  We get into a mental battle with ourselves, and the path of least effort wins.  We sit indoors, and eat fast food.

What I’m suggesting, and trying to do myself, is reframe healthy food and exercise as being things that are appealing in their own right, and as with the other activities on that list, well worth the effort for the sake of pleasure and fun.

To focus on the being and doing of health, and let the results come.