Do something Friday

Learning to manage your mind.

The holiday season is closing in and with it, the 400 commercial an hour designed to make kids want every toy under the sun.  Those toys you know your kid isn't going to play with -- they don't even like XYZ!  They just want it because marketers are genius at selling to kid.  And kids aren't old enough to be able to sort through the facts that they are being manipulated into wanting this over-priced piece of plastic that's going to break 2 minutes after they take it out of the package. (which probably isn't all that bad a thing considering the piece of plastic is only just about that interesting and even if it lasted longer, what are the chances the kid is going to play with it more than that anyway?)

But wait....how much different are we than the kids?  Oh!  Wait!  Except for the fact that we're older, probably have better access to credit, and can tell our parents to back off when they try to give us "great" advice, WE'RE NOT ANY DIFFERENT IN LOTS OF SITUATIONS!

We want what we want.  Even if we know it's not good for us.  Even if we know it is just going to distract us from our long term goals.  Especially, if the marketers have done a good job selling it to us.  WE JUST WANT IT!....NOW!

Last Friday, I told you it was time to get out your journals and start writing down everything that is going into your mouths. (don't worry -- just a couple weeks of it....you can do it!)

This weekend, I want you to jot down why you are eating whatever it is you're eating.  I want you to start noticing how susceptible we all are to suggestion.  Last week one of my coworkers said she was picking up sushi for dinner -- for the rest of the week, I was craving sushi!

Dying for chips on the ride home?  Did you see a Lay's truck?  Or a billboard?  Commercial?

Sometimes, all it takes to diffuse a psychological desire to eat is to understand what initiated it.  And if you think about it -- how many of those desires lead to 200 calories here, 400 calories there?  Diffuse a couple of those situations and all the sudden your pants are going to fit quite a bit better.