The last few days have been particularly difficult with respect to my diet. I’ve been craving sweets a little bit more and when I give a cookie to my sons, I have an irrational urge to swallow it whole. Not surprisingly, it is most difficult when I am confronted with a tangible choice – cookie or celery, but I’m sure that there’s more to it than proximity and choice. What has changed recently has been taking care of my two boys a little bit more and a greater deal of work related stress.
My work lets me to a lesser degree, study the good, bad and ugly of consumer behavior and with my recent cravings I remembered an interesting paper written by two Stanford professors, Baba Shiv and Alexander Fedorikhin, completed in the late 90s. The 2 authors showed that participants who had been asked to memorize a seven-digit number were much more likely to choose chocolate cake over fruit salad than those who’d been asked to memorize only a two-digit number. Carrying a lighter cognitive load, the two-digit group had more brainpower left to resist the lure of the cake.
Therefore, if you’ve got a lot on your plate and mind even if they are simple things you are more predisposed to select the automatic, emotional-driven, or intuitive processes versus more thoughtful, cognitive processes- the immediate tug of the chocolate cake versus the cognitive tug of the fruit salad.
Is that what is happening to me these days? There’s likely some of that happening as well as biologically my body may be telling me to have a little sugar and it may just be a habitual response.
For whatever reason I’m just glad I’m fighting the impulse to chow down on junk. It’s working well so far but I am wondering if later on in the PCP my defenses will break down. I’m trying to reduce temptations around me and drinking lots of water/coffee/teas and this seems to be working. If you have any tricks let me know.
Workouts are moving up a notch since Patrick wanted us to push each exercise to its limit. I’m trying to go to failure and beyond with the idea that the body gives up way before the mind ever does. Especially with leg exercises like lunges and squats, the burn is painful and fleeting leaving my legs rubbery and tired. It may not sound like it but this is a good feeling. I’m also trying everything I can to get my 8 hours sleep. It’s hard but not impossible.
It was my wife Nicole’s birthday today and I bought her a Chocolate Raspberry Ganache cake. The baker uses only natural ingredients but still it was packed with loads of sugar and other bad stuff. I couldn’t let her down though and had a small piece to celebrate her day – funny thing though I also had fruit salad. Other than that, business as usually and I’m still rocking the PCP.
See you tomorrow.
1 comment:
For now just go to failure on the last set, don't overdo it.
As for the temptations, they will subside as your body completes the withdrawal process from all the sugars you were eating before and new habits are formed.
That doesn't mean you won't still want a cookie from time to time, it just means you won't want one so bad that it's driving you nuts.
Keep going!
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