Trick or Treat

It’s Halloween!

In front of you is a huge bag, full of calorie-laden candy. You think, I am strong and I will eat only one piece of candy!

Care to make a wager?

The last week of October is the beginning of the TRICK OR TREAT TRAP that lasts clear through Jan. 2. One piece of Halloween candy becomes the second piece of pie on Thanksgiving, the third helping of mashed potatoes on Christmas Day and too much bubbly on New Year’s Eve. 

You’ve fallen into the Trick or Treat Trap!

Even those who manage to “just say no” during 75% of the year (January through September) may fall into the Trap. What can we do once we awaken our “Glutton DNA” with just that one slip of the tongue? Self-control? What self-control?

I offer you 3 ways to fight the Trick or Treat Trap.

Transform the meaning of the stimuli, a fancy way of saying change the words you use to describe the treat. Make it less desirable. Do you love chocolate cupcakes? Tell yourself that cupcakes are dirt in a paper cup. Adore peanut brittle? Rocks that break can break your teeth. Mashed potatoes? Ha, looks like glue to me! Take away the power of the food by changing your words.

Distance yourself by referring to yourself in the third person. It’s not really you looking at that delicious food. Instead of thinking, I want that piece of pecan pie, I can say “Sandra is craving that pie because she is weak and hungry, poor woman.”

Do you need another trick to defeat the treat? Make the object of your desire abstract. Look at that beautiful box of candy on the table in front of you. Using your imagination, picture a frame around the box (get it – picture frame?) and the box is no longer real. It is a picture and you can’t eat a picture, can you?

On Halloween, when you are looking at that bag full of candy, first tell yourself that the candy is really worms, then say to yourself that (fill in your name) is weak and doesn’t really want the candy, and finally picture the bag in a frame on the wall.

Trick or treat!

The article above was submitted by Sandra Rodriguez, Life Repurposed Coach.