On Muffins and Muffin Tops
Posted on 12. Jul, 2010 by Susan in Blog
Muffins do not create muffin tops. Depriving yourself of all delicious foods, like a muffin, will. Quickly.
It’s not the muffin that’s the problem.
Spending all day and night white knuckling against the desire to eat a muffin, stewing over, brooding about and cursing muffins, will most likely lead to situations like shutting yourself inside your kitchen pantry to scarf down 5 muffins at once. All your power is given away to an innocent muffin.
My client Allison is one pretty smart chic. She’s learning how to listen to what her body has to say about when she is hungry and satisfied. But she was having a mental war with a cafeteria muffin.
Each morning, she would longingly gaze at the muffins as she ordered her yogurt. She would think about having an affair with that muffin all day. By nighttime, Allison was pretty pissed off. And then, she would retaliate against the deprivation with a pint of something she felt she “deserved.”
I invited Allison to order and eat the damn muffin.
I personally do not want to live in a world where foods are measured and weighed, anything other than celery stalks are “bad” and people declare themselves “powerless” in the face of snack foods. Are you kidding me?
Our bodies are extraordinarily powerful. They communicate with us all day long. If we listen, we can hear the signals. Hungry, satisfied, sluggish, energized, blocked or in the flow. The answers are there.
Doritos and muffins and cookies do not scare me. I can eat them. My body tells me what it likes. If a muffin makes me feel like crap, chances are, I won’t order one very often. But avoiding “bad foods” leads to diet mentality. And you can see how far diets get us….spending 60 billion a year to lose and gain and lose and gain again.
Allison sent me this email this morning:
“A funny thing happened in the cafeteria this morning for breakfast. I didn’t want the MUFFIN!!!! Go figure! Now that I gave myself permission it lost its appeal. I thought it was funny that I’ve been thinking about this darn muffin for a week now!”
And that’s how it works. She let go of the resistance, and it turns out that she really didn’t want the muffin today so much. It’s not the muffin she’s after. Now she can sort out what she really wants.
6 Responses to “On Muffins and Muffin Tops”
Leave a Reply
Get The Book!
Featured In
Thank you for this post! And yay Allision! I am trying to be more mindful of my hunger scale and this weekend I made a bowl of ice cream to watch a video with my mom. But after a few bites, I realized that I didn’t really want it. So I put it back in the freezer (this is new!). It was a small victory to have the awareness that I didn’t want it that moment, BUT could have it later (which I did)!!
Thanks for this Susan, a little more than a week ago I made a promise to myself to have my most Rockin’ Body ever!!! Which is no easy task as I recently put on some serious sugar grief weight, 65 lbs overweight, most diet sites say to lose it in a healthy way would take nearly a year. If I’m going to spend the next 10 months committed to this, I most certainly do not want to be at war with every temptation known to man. Thanks again.
I love this. Years ago I learned I had to invoke child psychology and give myself the option to say Yes to foods, so then I had the chance to say No myself. Funny that!
But boy, does a muffin with jam look good right about now.
Tatyana
Thanks Ladies! I love reading your thoughts.
Sasha–rock on with your badass self. It’s funny isn’t it? We sit down with a whole bowl of something and realize, wow, I do not have to eat all of this if I am full and/or satisfied.
I remember the first time I threw away half a bowl of chili. It was liberating! There’s always more.
Jill–yes! Deciding to have your best body can include delicious foods. In fact, it absolutely should. Forget the diet rules!
Tatyana-Thanks so much. Taking our power back means saying yes and no when we decide. Not when a program, diet book, or th clock says we can eat. Good for you.
Love this! Know this. But oh how do I not get caught up all the time and forget I don’t even want it! When I do pay attention, it’s usually the case, but I’m having trouble staying “aware” and not eating mindlessly!
Thanks for the inspirations!
Hey Gina!
Being aware and watching your thoughts is a practice. I get better and better at it. High five for “usually paying attention.” That’s awesome.
I check in with myself hourly and eavesdrop on my very own self. It’s sometimes pretty amusing. LOL
XO
S