Day 70 - The food not eaten and reflections on my progress

• Temptation is everywhere!

Omiage (food souvenirs) at work after people return from travels abroad during Golden Week. This was taken at 11.50 and most of the chocolates my boss from LA brought are gone. It's eating to see how the paper cases have got dishevelled because people have just reached in, grabbed what they like, and not cared if the chocolates get a bit jumbled. I know because I used to be one of these people. Junko, a Japanese colleague, brought Japanese sweets, maybe manju cake with a bean filling. I expect they are way lower in sugar than chocolate. These are still popular, but I saw quite a few just sitting
unwrapped on the Japanese staff's desks. 


The Japanese will probably eat their cake before lunch as the foreigners did, but probably much more slowly and seated, not on the hoof. In the far corner are some small pieces of candied fruit in chocolate brought by Bill, a guy who went to Taiwan. This omiage wasn't that popular - I guess because the foreigners who would go for chocolate had something much more indulgent looking in the form of the box of chocs from the US. Plus it was open which equals a big 'Come on down!' to most people.

And who really wants to make chocolate 'healthy' by adding fruit anyway? My colleague Tracey recently put out some delicious looking homemade white chocolate and cranberry muffins that her teenage son rejected because they had fruit in them. Go figure!

• Progress

I've got good at ignoring the omiage tray and in the past I'd be one of the people who ate just because it was there. It's taken about a year to unlearn this habit. Now I regularly make a good decision about this. I enjoy the feeling of saying no to this and yes to gorgeous colorful vital fruit. I get to do this every day an easy way because I eat fruit daily at 11. As people bring omiage every couple of weeks on average, declining it is a bit harder. It's not part of the daily routine. I always manage though and feel proud and independent.

• A gentle discipline

It strikes me that as emotional eating in the form of my Winnie the Pooh incident happens very seldom. I don't get that emotional regularly. So the craving feeling is experienced as something much darker and threatening.

If I can draw on the skill I demonstrate in front of a stupid tray of sugary goods, I can learn to handle darker moods without going on a sugar binge. And I will.

• Find the bright spots!

PCP-ers, let's not overanalyse our weaknesses. Find the bright spots where things go well, and copy that success into the darker places!