Has your family been “suffering” ever since you have been trying to “eat better”?
Have you, very wisely, stopped baking their favourite very non-clean treats in an attempt to make it easier on yourself to stick to your meal plan? I understand! That was a smart move – if it’s not in the house, you won’t eat it. Right? Because if you’re anything like me, if I’m making cookies, I’ll eat that batter ’till it hurts, lol! I can’t stop! The time that I baked a recipe that was supposed to yield 36 (three sheets) cookies, and only 12 (uuuhhh, one sheet…) made it to the oven, I knew I had to get a hold of the situation. So here is how your kiddies and/or partner can still have their cookies and you, can still have your pride, lol!
Here is the game plan:
1. Repeat after me, “elegance is in refusal”!!! Coco knows what she talking about. So the first step is to get your mind right. You know you don’t want to eat 4 cups of cookie dough. You want to rise above! You want to be better than that cookie dough. You want to show that cookie dough that it does not control you! Prepare to refuse it! (this alone does not work, unfortunately) (if it did, we wouldn’t be having this convo…) We are flexing our “willpower” muscles here people!!!
2. Prepare your tools. So as you are getting out your bowls, measuring cups, ingredients, etc, get out your “tools”. Every person’s tools will look a little different. But it should be something along these lines: water, tea, then a snack of something high in protein/healthy fat/complex carb. What you basically want to do is, drink a tonne of water, follow that with a cup of tea, then have a snack/treat that you are okay with – something healthy, something that you would be proud of eating an hour later. For me, I have two cups of lemon water, then a cup of green tea with a titch of honey in it. Then, depending on the time of day, I’ll make myself either a low cal simple protein smoothie (if it’s past 3 pm) or I’ll mix up some large flake oats, protein powder, coconut oil, cinnamon and a few raisins (if it’s in the a.m.). Then I’ll eat my snack, drink my tea and basically make myself so full and satisfied that I don’t want any of that vixen cookie dough.
3. Okay, so you made it past the prep stage. Baked good is in the oven. You’re full. Buuuut….yeah, I know, there’s nothing like freshly baked cookies, right? And they have to come out at some point….Well, you will be so full/satisfied from your “good snack” still that even those soft gooey temptresses won’t have their full power. Here’s where my trick #3 comes in. Pick a baked good that you don’t really like! I’m not a huge fan of chocolate or chocolate chip cookies, so that’s what I’ll make. Now, if they were cinnamon raisin oatmeal, I’d be tempted! But choco. chip, mehh, I’ll pass.
4. It’s the next day. You’re running late on your meals, and you’re starving. Cookie jar is righttherestaringatyou and no one is around. You’re not really in love with those cookies but for some da*n reason, nothing has ever looked better!!!! This is an emergency! Now, had you have been on time with your meals, this could have been avoided in the first place, so stick to your meal timing plan! (Because you would have been full/satisfied from your meal and not tempted) But if life happened and it’s late, I get it. This is where you revert BACK to step #1! Every time you successfully refuse to “go there” you will feel proud of yourself, and you will realize, you CAN do that. Refusal is a skill. We need to practice it to get good at it. Willpower is not a personality trait we are born with, it is a developed skill that needs to be practiced and then celebrated when we get it right! Then move onto step #2 – either eat your planned meal or have a snack that includes some protein, healthy fat, and depending on the time of day, a complex carb.
5. And finally, if your family is not getting through that jar ‘o cookies fast enough, pack them up and send them away. No, not your family, the COOKIES! Get your partner to take the rest to work, his/her coworkers will think you’re super awesome and you’ll be feeling smug knowing that yah, you are, and that you made it through the Battle of Baking!!! I remember my first victory like it was yesterday, seriously, I do. It’s important! This seems like trivial silly stuff, but it’s not. All these little victories add to our confidence and to the development of willpower of IRON! You can do this. Now go bake something! 🙂
Iron Heart Personal Training 