Chips for Brains

Can't have them in the house. It's been a year and a half, and I am sometimes strong, quite strong, but sometimes incredibly weak in the face of chips, popcorn, any starch laced with fat and salt.

These foods sing to me. They sing and lull me along.

I make popcorn for my kids when we watch movies. Or we buy chips "for our guests" when we have picnics. The guests and the kids barely touch these things, whereas I devour bowlfuls.

If these foods exist anywhere in the house, their presence gets stuck in in my conciousness and stays there. I can't shake it. I can be absorbed in a task, at the climax of dramatic action in a novel or movie, about to make a lucid point, on the brink of solving the whole "why we are here" problem while doing squats AND cleaning my dogs' ears - fully engaging my brain and body - when the presence of those chips will insert itself in my line of thought.

It's annoying, Lays Originals, to say the least. A perfectly lovely Snyders Sourdough Pretzels metaphor that I've labored Doritoes over for weeks will finally Pringles crystallize for me. And just Ruffles as I find pen and Kettle Chips paper to record my thoughts Cheetos, I find I want to snack.

But I don't snack.

I eat half a bag at a sitting before it occurs to me to stop. That's all my calorie load for a day or two and all my carbs forever.

Not acceptable.

So, we sometimes throw away the bags of chips. Despite our mothers' shrieking about the waste. We sometimes waste the food. Even flush it. Get rid of it so it isn't sitting in the house.

It's hard to do that when the kids come over for a movie and popcorn. I need to remind myself to save calories and fill up on protein just before they arrive, put the popcorn bowl well away from me, and not allow myself to have it.

Trouble foods. Chip brains. There's nothing inherently wrong with a food craving. The trouble is when your craving leads you to bingeing. It's when you know in your heart that you can't handle a food without crossing that line into overeating.

Most of the time, if I eat some protein and wait 20 minutes, the craving disappears. But not when there are chips in the house.

How do you and your family deal with your trouble foods? It's a good idea to have a way, and to have a strategy for these encounters. Some people find that eating one handful of the food works - satisfying the craving a little to keep it from gaining strength. Some say keep the troublesome stuff in the freezer, so you have to thaw it out before you can eat it. Some say under lock and key. Some try hypnosis. Some ask for help from family and coworkers.

I've had some luck, some progress with repatterning my thinking (Chips = Pain), though I find I need to keep that up over time. It isn't permanent.

For me, the stuff has to stay out of the house.

Find your own way, lovies,

JuJu


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