This is what I remember when a cut price box of Chocolate goodies feels too good a bargain to miss; or the buy one get seven free offers would save me money in the wrong run, because I’m just going to end up succumbing to the temptation –
Stop.
What I am really paying for is a particularly violent binge, after which (and if I’m still standing) I will feel like death – for the sake of a bargain.
And this is what I remind myself when the lure of Christmas goodies feels too strong to resist; and the taste of mince pies teases and tempts me, and promises me that one binge will get the craving out of my system –
Wait.
It will pass.
Because what I’m really giving into, I don’t actually want; and the one binge fix is a flawed solution.
When my head tells me that the opportunity for a few Christmas Eve last minute reductions should be scheduled into my diary; I will remember the loneliness of supermarkets when the rest of the world is with friends.
If it panics me into thinking that I will not survive a few days of closed shops and will be struck, in this little window of restriction, by an uncontrollable urge ; then I will remind it, politely, that a day is just a day – and the risk is preferable to the pre-sentence.
And, if it strikes me, off guard, and I am left to deal with the post-binge devastation or it declares Christmas, “ruined”; then I will remember that it has punished me enough already –
And I will not be giving it that power..
