Chocolate Mishap

Sliding back into old habits happens, and it happened to me last night. Our brain's are hard wired with habit (some good, and some bad). I am a night time muncher. I can follow my diet all day and then 10PM comes along and I'm knee deep in popcorn, candy, and ice cream. I've tried to combat this bad habit by replacing it with a new habit, such as go to bed earlier, take a shower, or brush my teeth right after dinner, but sometimes I feel like I've lost my will power and give into snacking in front of the TV late at night. Last night I found myself unconsciously eating Dove chocolates. I felt numb while I was eating and then I suddenly woke up and thought "Dear god. What am I doing?"

Instead of wallowing in disappointment and regret I've decided to learn from this mistake, forgive myself, and move on. What I can learn from this chocolate mishap is that staying up past 10PM is not going to work for me. I naturally get hungry at that time, so making a mandatory bed time of 9:30PM next week might help. Eating in front of the TV is another no-no. I know I use food to as a soothing and coping method, so I need to acknowledge my feelings and replace food with blogging or reading instead. Last night I think I was feeling anxious about not knowing what I'm doing this summer so I dove into some Dove. If I lived by myself I would choose not to have snacks and tempting munchies around, but I don't, and can't enforce food choices on the people I live with...so I need to learn to cope with temptation.

Ironically, the message inside one of the Dove wrappers was: Take 5 deep breaths. I should try that next time.