In moderation

I have proven over and over in my life that I can start doing things and stop doing things but moderation? Nope, moderation eludes me. You can...... but only sometimes. I do not think humans are build for moderation. Human survival is not build on moderation nor is our history.

This is the conscious / unconscious thing again. You decide to start doing something and have to remind yourself consciously that you need to do it and then eventually it becomes unconscious. Trigger – action. Or you stop doing something. Again at the beginning you consciously have to stop yourself from acting on your trigger and eventually the trigger no longer leads to the action. Both are relatively easy after a bit of struggle and as far as I am concerned the only way to go with addictive substance – you do them or you do not, for 99% of people there is no alternative.

But doing something sometimes? What am I asking of myself here? Let's say our 'thing' is chocolate cake. Think of, smell, or see chocolate cake and either move hell and earth to get to it or ignore it. That is why gaining and losing weight is relatively easy too; most people have managed it at least once or twice in their lives. What do I do with moderation? Sometimes I have it and sometimes I do not? Trigger comes and I can not use standard reaction of either do or do not. I have to make a decision every time which means I have to be present and aware of my options and emotions at that very moment. Sounds like hard work to me! And that is why I and million of others never manage to keep hold of our weight loss.

I have bought this box of cookies yesterday with this in mind. I do not often buy cookies and chocolates - if they are not in the house I do not need or crave them. That is my standard 'NOT doing it' and pretty easy. However, the box of cookies is now in the house and my thoughts go to it often. My problem is that I am the ultimate 'All or Nothing girl'. If I start eating it, I will finish eating it in one go. Yesterday I did not open the box – a little harder than not having it in the house but again a NOT doing it.

The experiment will be to open the box and have up to and no more than one (1!) cookie a day and enjoy it. The box should last about 9 days. Really the experiment should not be restrained by one (1!) cookie a day. It should be: open box, eat whenever you feel like it. But I am giving myself a break here and am setting up a little scaffolding to hold on to. The important thing is being present and honest each day I make the cookie decision.

1000 Actions

10.03

33. Work out with trainer and did some good running I was well pleased with

34. Book physiotherapy session for my painful shoulder

35. EFT Improving eye-sight experiment wk 2 day 2 & eye exercises

(Had to start over with 'no complaining' experiment – did not even make it half a day)

11.03.

36. EFT Improving eye-sight experiment wk 2 day 3 & eye exercises

37. Finished SuperCoach by my favourite coach Michael Neill and can highly recommend it