Critical decision
Thursday, August 06, 2009
I had a lunch meeting today. Ohhh....the dreaded lunch meeting. Our meeting host doesn't know I'm working on a healthy eating plan. He doesn't know to instruct the caterers to broil, not fry....to offer the salad dressing on the side. But if I'm ever going to change eating habits permanently, I'm going to have to learn to face these situations and deal with them. I sidled up to the buffet, plate in hand. The offering was some type of chicken breast, smothered in a rich mushroom sauce with buttered bowtie pasta and sauteed onions and peppers. Okay, I can handle this. I'm sure there's more fat on here than I would cook with so I'll just lower the portion amounts. Just a bite of this....a spoon of that....doing well, feeling fine, skip the bread, coming to the end of the buffet line feeling like I'm coming into the light at the end of a tunnel when there they were......strategically placed right at the end of the line....the caramel chocolate chip cookies. Oh sweet irony of life....to have come so far through the buffet line only to be faced with my nemesis here at the end. I gritted my teeth, screamed "NO" in my head and walked briskly back to the conference table. Conversation was light and casual throughout lunch but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what it was about. I nodded in agreement, chuckled on cue, but in reality I wasn't paying any attention to what anyone was saying. My mind was focused entirely on the plate of caramel chocolate chip cookies. I intentionally wasn't looking at them but I knew they were there. They mocked me, enticed me to come have just one. I pondered the dilemma. Should I have a cookie or not? I've been working so hard on my eating plan. But surely one cookie every now and then can't spoil the whole program. If I completely deny myself these things, I'll just want them more later. Yes or no, yes or no, do I or do I not? To cookie or not to cookie, that was the question. Then it dawned on my how ridiculous I was. Serious problems are occurring all over the planet. World leaders are making decisions which will shape the economic and social future of our civilization. Life and death, war and peace, justice and travesty are unfolding all around me and my entire being is preoccupied with whether or not I should eat a caramel chocolate chip cookie. There is definitely something wrong with this picture.