I bought a Coke a few days ago, and then didn’t get around to drinking it until yesterday. It was…just ok. And then it was gone, and I was ok with that too.
Every once in a while, an occasional indulgence in junk food can be fun. It’s just not something I’m planning to add back to my diet on a regular basis.
I have a confession to make. I haven’t eaten what is usually considered American fast food for years, with one exception, until today. Even before I figured out that I needed to give up wheat and I went gluten-free, I’d lost my taste for McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway, Taco John’s, and so on. The exception is Arby’s, and that’s only because it’s easy to dismantle the sandwiches and not eat the bread. I’m pretty sure that means I need to be better at planning road trip meals, since it’s on road trips that I’m susceptible to just running through the Arby’s drive-up. Years ago my husband and I agreed we’d been eating too much fast food and so we slowly (and then not-so-slowly) cut it out by cutting back to no more than one such meal a week before eliminating it completely.
I had no problem with giving up most of those options, because all I had to do was remind myself how awful I felt after eating them. Recently, though, any time I pass a McDonald’s all I can think about are those fries. I have tried and tried to distract myself from that craving by indulging in different junk food options. I even tried crunching carrots, and while the carrots satisfied the crunch craving, they didn’t do anything for the salt craving or the memory of how the fries taste. Since I’ve managed, mostly, to usually talk myself out of junk food except for recently, in response to the fries craving, I finally decided I’d just get them, eat them, and remind myself how lousy I feel afterwards. (Cravings are a completely different topic!)
Drumroll please…to me, at least, they weren’t as good as I remembered. So now I’m over the craving, and all I have to do is hold on to that memory.
What is one of your occasional indulgences? What have you tried lately that wasn’t as good as you remembered? What are you completely ok with leaving out of your diet these days?
Cheers! Here’s to your health! :)