Do you have days when you crave Cheez-its? For me, it’s today. I love those Cheezy, flakey, salty treats. Sometimes I just crave salt. Why? Doctor Google says, I’m either dehydrated, stressed, sleep-deprived, or pregnant. Maybe I’m all of these, except pregnant.
So I drank a glass of water. I still craved Cheez-its.
If I’m not dehydrated, why do I crave Cheez-Its? A physician, Jesus Lizarzabubu (I’m not making his name up), says "We tend to gravitate toward things that are enjoyable, and a lot of things that are bad for us are very enjoyable…There’s a reason they call a lot of these foods comfort foods, They bring us a lot of joy at a primal level." (1)
Duh – thanks for that wisdom, doc. I never realized that I gravitated toward eating things that are enjoyable.
So why don’t I get joy from eating Kale? I guess some people do. Melanie Dawson blogged “80-90% of the time I eat the foods that make me feel my healthiest and that I know will continue to help my body fight disease and chronic illness.” (2) But apparently she doesn’t always eat the healthiest foods. The title of that blog is “Eating Kale Won’t Get you into Heaven.” But I’m not sure I’d eat Kale even if it did get me into heaven.
The only trouble with Melanie’s idea is that I don’t feel any healthier when I eat Kale than I do when I eat a Dove Mini Ice Cream. Actually my mouth feels healthier after the Dove Mini because it feels cool. Kale gets stuck between my teeth. Maybe what she means is that she feels better mentally or spiritually.
The thing is, since dinners are included in our monthly fee, I have more temptations now than I did when I fixed my own food. Last night I chose a fried spring roll for my appetizer instead of a salad. OK, I did eat salmon, spinach and cauliflower for my entree, but I finished it with a scoop of Heath Bar Crunch ice cream for dessert. There are just too many unhealthy options. I guess I lack willpower.
So when Book Bub offered the book The Willpower Instinct for $1.99, I snatched it up. The advice: To succeed at self-control, you need to know how you fail. That advice seems obvious to me. I know how I fail. I fail when I buy Cheez-Its. They are like a siren’s call, “Sue. Buy Me. My cheesy crunchiness will give you joy.”
The book says people fail to predict when, where, and why they will give in. Ok, I certainly can predict the when and where: at the grocery when I’m shopping and at the restaurant when they take our dessert order. For the why – I’ll paraphrase the song from the Mickey Mouse Club – Why? because I like it!
The prediction thing does have merit though. In 1985 when we we attended Smokenders, the class had us predict when we’d get the urge to smoke and what we would do to combat that urge. They offered lots of techniques from fear, to mantras, to distractions. The fear technique was that ghastly picture of a smoker without a jaw. Back then, I couldn’t relate. That lady was old and wrinkled.
What worked for me was the mantra; a card that said, “The urge to smoke will go away whether you smoke or not.” So I think I’ll make myself a deck of cards: The urge to eat fill in will go away whether you eat or not.
The class and book also suugested you distract yourself when you get an urge. Instead of a cigarette, drink tea. Instead of ice cream, drink tea. You’d better like tea.
The reason we lack willpower, according the author and neuroscientist Kelly McGonigal, is that your brain is a jumble of old and new technology. Deep inside, you’ve got the reptilian brain, the original, no-frills survival system that only knows “fight, flee, or freeze.” But lucky for us, evolution came along and slapped an upgrade in front of the reptilian part—the prefrontal cortex, which lets us plan, reason, and (sometimes) resist the urge to buy Cheez-Its.
McGonigal says meditation can actually make the responsible part of your brain stronger. And you don’t have to worry if you are bad at it Being terrible at meditation—like, constantly catching yourself thinking about Cheez-Its instead of inner peace—actually helps. Every time you notice your brain wandering, it’s like a little workout for your self-control.
Now all I have to do is train myself to meditate instead of going to the kitchen to grab Cheez-Its, and I’ll be a self-control genius.
References
Erica Lamberg, Ask a doctor: ‘Why do I keep eating foods that I know are bad for me?’, Fox News, June 17, 2024
Melanie Dawson, Eating Kale Won’t Get You Into Heaven, Cultivate Wellness, November 12, 2015
Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works and Why it Matters, Avery, December 31, 2013.