So you want to know when to eat that donut? Short answer? Tomorrow. Self-discipline and food is not an easy combination. But we’re going to make it easy.
Self-discipline.
I can FEEL the eye-rolls and the heavy sighs. Sorry, ya’ll. We’re about to talk self-discipline.
Here’s the thing, though. When we’re working on keeping ourselves on track, we’ve got to have some kind of general rules to follow. Self-discipline not a general rule. It’s the foundation our rules should SIT on.
This does NOT mean telling ourselves no all the time. It’s actually more about telling ourselves yes, but just sometimes.
This does NOT mean telling ourselves no all the time. It’s actually more about telling ourselves yes, but just sometimes.
One of the best things we can do to keep ourselves on track is by giving ourselves not just permission to enjoy the things we love, but guidance on WHEN and HOW to enjoy our favorite things.
Eat your donut tomorrow.
This isn’t literal. We’re not talking about an actual 24 hour from this minute before you can eat your donut. Or your bag of chips, that piece of candy, or a can of soda.
Tomorrow might be in an hour. Maybe it’s this afternoon, or after dinner. Tomorrow might be a birthday party that’s coming up or a dinner at that spot with the BEST.CHOOCOLATE.CAKE.EVER. The exact amount of time doesn’t matter.
Choosing our tomorrow is really about forcing ourselves to wait a day – or a few hours. Mostly we just need to give ourselves enough time to focus on something else, for at least a short time. That short time usually works best when it’s at least an hour. A day is even better.
Pick a short amount of time. At least an hour. A day is even better.
During that time, we’re going to do 2 things.
First, we’re going to think about that donut GOOD and hard for about 5 minutes.
Pick out exactly the donut you want and picture how good it’s going to taste. See yourself eating that donut and enjoying very single bite. See yourself finishing that donut and being done with donuts for the rest of the day. Maybe even for the rest of the week.
During those 5 minutes, think about why you want to eat your donut. Are you craving sweets or salt? Are you sad or lonely? Are you just bored? You don’t have to journal about it (if you don’t want). Just take a mental note. If there’s a feeling, feel it. If there’s a thought, think it through.
And then move on to number 2.
The second thing we’re going to do is something else.
ANYTHING else. Write an email, phone a friend, go for a walk. Take a shower, cook dinner, watch some Netflix. It doesn’t matter. Obviously, if you’ve only got an hour to kill small activities are great. Sweep your kitchen, who cares. Just set that mental timer and get through that bit of time.
If you’ve given yourself a longer stretch of time, now is your time to plan for it. What will you do between right now and tomorrow? It’s not a trick question and can definitely be the obvious. Maybe it’s as simple as going to work in the morning. And then eating your donut for dessert after dinner tomorrow instead of tonight.
Or it can be a little more tricky. Maybe you have to take the long way home so you don’t pass the donut shop. Ok, then that’s what has to happen today.
No one’s perfect. And we definitely don’t have to be perfect to be healthy.
Being healthy is NOT about being perfect. Being healthy is about showing up EVERY day with the intention to make the choices that COLLECTIVELY come together and create a healthy you.
Healthy isn’t a question of how today went, it’s an ongoing conversation about how this WEEK went. How this MONTH is going. How have I treated my body over the last YEAR. It’s the big picture that matters. And once we start thinking about the big picture, we can see shades of healthy that give us permission to eat more than just salad and water.
Getting healthy is the same as investing. Only instead of investing dollars, we’re investing in our body.
No one wakes up in the morning, says “I want to be a millionaire”, and just pulls the cash out from under the bed, then heads off to the bank to deposit a mill.
We’ve got to make small deposits in the bank regularly. Sometimes we have more to put in, sometimes we come up a little short. Either way, it’s the consistency that matters more than anything else. The minute we stop showing up to the bank with our regular deposits, is the minute we lose sight on the bigger picture.
So time to pull out some self-discipline and dust that puppy off. Because we’re about to WORK it HARD.
The next time a craving hits, remember what we talked about. Think about how you’re going to eat your donut tomorrow. Set a time, and stick to it. Set up a plan on how to stick to that time. And then eat the SH*T out of that donut.