Confession: Much of my emotional attachment around the Holiday’s comes from food.

Pioneer Woman’s Maple Cinnamon Rolls=Christmas

Pumpkin rolls & bars=Thanksgiving

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies/muffins/bread=Fall & Winter

Roast Beef Tacos with all the fixings & the best orange/pineapple slushy drink=Christmas Eve

Ham & sweet potatoes with LOTS of marshmallows=Thanksgiving

Caramel Apples & homemade donuts=Fall/Winter

Homemade rice chex goo, lemon bars, gingerbread cookies, and oreos with cream cheese frosting=Neighbor/friend gifts

You see what I mean?  I look forward to the Holiday season as much as the next person.  One of the main reasons for that in the past was because it meant I’d be eating super yummy and extremely comforting food.

This year I’m really striving to reach my goals and have determined not to partake in the usual beloved food items.  1. Because I know myself well enough to realize doing so may throw me into a downward spiral & take me even further from my goals, and 2. I am retraining my brain to enjoy friends/family/conversations, more than food in social situations.

Last week my son was assigned to bring the treat to his preschool class for Monday morning’s session.  It was Sunday late afternoon and I had no idea what he was going to take.  I pulled out the recipe box and found my old standby Fall/Winter favorite: Homemade Oreos.  These cookies are basically to die for.  They have a cake mix based chocolate oreo cookie on top & bottom and an amazingly yummy cream cheese frosting in the middle to sandwich the cookie together.  They are super yummy warm, even better the next day after sitting overnight, and completely amazing frozen.  So really, they are totally unsafe for me to be around.  I can’t just “put them in the freezer till the day I will allow myself to eat one,” because I know how yummy they are frozen and that makes them even more tempting.  But, I needed something for him to take & I had the ingredients, they are easy, and he was excited about the prospect.  I figured I could roll them in sprinkles to make them even more festive.

I prepared everything and from step one till the very end when the cookies were completely assembled & waiting to be taken from my house, I was having conversations with myself.  I was using Dr. A’s technique of Stop-Challenge-Choose.  And here is what I kept telling myself:

“I really want one.  I want some of the dough.  I want a spoonful of frosting.  I want an entire warm from the oven with frosting dripping out of the sides, cookie.  I want a cooled off leftover cookie.  Just one won’t undo all my progress…”

Then, {this process only took a matter of seconds in my head} “I can make these anytime.  They are not a novelty.  I’ve just made them seem that way.  I always have cake mix, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.  I can make these cookies on any given day.  I don’t have to feel deprived because I’m not eating one.  I can have a brownie that is yummy and almost as good and stay safely on plan.  When I meet my goal-if I still desire to do so-I can make these cookies again and enjoy one in maintenance.  I am not depriving myself.  I’m choosing what I want MOST over what I want now.”

When I’d made the decision in my head, the cookies weren’t even tempting.  In fact, I kept the leftovers in a baggie on the counter in the kitchen for several days afterward till my boys had eaten them all & I wasn’t even phased.  A few days after the conversation over the cookies in my head, a friend sent me a quote she’d found on Pinterest, which I’ve had on our fridge for quite a while.  It’s a mantra of sorts for me & is totally applicable.

"the cause of most of man's unhappiness is sacrificing
what he wants MOST for what he wants NOW."  Gordon B. Hinckley

It’s not worth it for that one meal or even a weekend of meals, to give up what you want most for what you want now.  You are worth MORE than that.  I am worth more than that.   I’m looking forward to meeting my goal and enjoying that cookie.  But who knows, by that point I may not even want it!