Oh Snap...or Rather Snap Ouch

Today is day five of this weeks goals and I have not consumed any soda; dammit, I mean pop. But I haven't gotten very far with the kitchen. I did get a lot of healthy things to eat, although I haven't been as successful about making my lunches and taking them to work as I want to be. But I can forgive myself for that and the lapses in healthy eating I may have had because my goal this week wasn't to completely overhaul my diet and start eating clean and healthy. And the lapses are justification for it. Previously I would think in a dramatic, bawling, over the top way that I had failed and use that failure as a reason to fall back into horrible eating habits, which in part would consist of consuming the vast amount of empty calories in pop. Instead I've stepped back, assessed what I've done right, been content in comparison to what I ate last week, gave the rubber band on my wrist a snap for considering giving into the temptation of drinking pop and gone about my merry way.

So, my rubber band trick is working. I'll walk past the pop machine and if I find myself strongly desiring one, snap. On my first night back at work it was the worst. I did well with the pop machine, but on my lunch I had to fuel up my vehicle and on the way to the gas station I habitually though I should pick up some pop while I was there. It resulted in a snap of the rubber band. I've also been using it to avoid the many boxes of girl scout cookies remaining the back of the van. Every time I think about cracking open a box of those I get a snap, which has been more often than pop. Nothing against girl scout cookies, they're awesome, but when I open a box I tend to eat all of the cookies it contained. There's a minimum of 900 calories in those boxes. I need those less than I need pop.

I'm not an advocate for negative reinforcement, but I do know if it works for me I should use it. And I don't think that it's the wincing from a potential snap that keeps me from persisting in bad habits. Honestly the snap hurts less than the rubber band snagging the little arm hairs on my wrist. To me the rubber band is a reminder of what I'm doing, and I see it as often as I look at my watch (which is far more often than it should be, but that's a whole other blog).

And so I can say oh snap when I walk past the pop machine like it's an a$$hole trying to get my attention, and snap ouch when I'm tempted but know better.