52 DAYS OF FITNESS CHALLENGE: DAY 20

Can I Use These 3 Lessons From Sobriety To Resist Food Temptation?

I hope so, because I don’t want this weekend to be my weight loss downfall.

Hello, everyone. Apologies for not updating yesterday. I was… busy. Okay, I was at the pool with the kids. What can I say? It’s summer.

Some good news on the weight loss front: According to yesterday’s weigh-in, I am clocking a net loss of 1.6 pounds.

Okay. By no means is this a huge loss, given that I’ve been at this for almost three weeks. But the way things have been going, I’ll take it.

It feels like actual progress. It feels like at long last, I am getting a little momentum here. Yay for momentum and for some smart choices made during the week.

But now… the weekend.

Ah, the weekend.

When I first began this challenge, I told myself that I was going to let weekends be a food free-for-all. But I have come to the sobering (pun totally intended) realization that if I’m serious about losing weight, that just ain’t gonna fly.

But weekends are tough for me. And this weekend is going to be particularly challenging because I am going away and won’t have a lot of control over what’s placed on the table.

However, I can control what I choose to eat from the offerings presented to me, and I can also control how much I eat.

If I choose to.

Will I choose to?

I want to choose to.

It’s not going to be easy.

But you know what else wasn’t easy? Quitting drinking. And I did that.

Food and alcohol are different — as you need one of these things to live, and the other of these things, well, not at all — but are there are some similarities between my relationship to food and my former relationship with alcohol that can help me here?

What did I learn from quitting drinking that can be applied to making better food choices and losing weight?

Sobriety Lesson Number One: Temptation Always Passes

When I first quit drinking, I had cravings, of course.

They came on strong and often, and at first, the only way to power through them was just that: to power through them with all the white-knuckled willpower I could muster.

But the thing about them was that… they always passed. Always. Usually in about 10 minutes or so, and sometimes much faster. And they got less frequent, and then they disappeared entirely.

Cravings always pass. Temptation can always be resisted. It’s just a matter of letting the time pass without doing the thing you don’t want to do.

I did it a billion times when I was quitting drinking.

So in theory, I should be able to do it with food.

Sobriety Lesson Number Two: Play The Tape Forward

Former drinkers cite this technique as instrumental in their sober success: When temptation strikes, play the tape forward.

In other words, imagine how you’ll act and feel if you give in to that craving.

With drinking, my tape would go something like this: Cave to temptation. Drink a lot of wine. Act in a silly fashion and probably post some stupid crap on social media. Wake up in a spiral of shame, regret, and pain.

Worth it? Nope!

While I have never regretted eating a bag of Doritos as much as I’ve regretted putting away an entire bottle of Sauv Blanc, I have made regrettable food choices, and they never feel good.

They make me feel heavy and bloated and frustrated and just plain angry with myself for setting myself back.

I don’t want to feel any of those things.

Sobriety Lesson Number Three: I Can Do Hard Things (If I Want To)

Quitting drinking was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

But I did it.

I can do hard things. I’ve proven that to myself. I just have to want to do them.

How badly do I want to lose 10 pounds? The short answer is not as badly as I wanted to quit drinking.

But I do want it.

And therefore, I know I can do it.

Thanks so much for reading, everyone. Have a wonderful weekend and please check on Tuesday, July 18th for my next update.

You can receive an email whenever I publish if you click here.