To eat the cake or not eat the cake

“Eat the cake.  Don’t eat the cake” – do you have voices in your head or is it just me?

I doubt it is just me.

Do you have conversations with yourself?  I don’t mean frightening conversations.  I mean conversations where you try to justify behaviour or talk yourself into doing something you know you shouldn’t?  A chat where the voices in your head battle it out to win their own way?

An example.

Yesterday we went to Canterbury.  A lovely family day out with lots of laughter.  A trip to a Panto, family lunch out, a quick no-guilt visit to Waterstones as I had a gift voucher from Christmas to use and then a quick – but hugely successful and guilt-ridden – visit to Patisserie Valerie.

At Waterstones I purchased Joe Wicks Lean in 15 cook book.  I have followed Joe (aka The Body Coach) for a long time on Instagram and love his recipe videos and his real life take on food.  I had recommended him to a friend who then purchased his book last week and then proceeded to share photos of her meals along with lots of “wow” and “yum” comments.

At Patisserie Valerie, I purchased a beautiful Strawberry Mille Feuille (along with a few chocolate slices for the twins).

When I got home I started flicking through the cook book and found a recipe for Salmon fillet with Ratatouille.  Really simple and I had everything in so this was dinner last night.

Now to an explanation of what I mean by the voices in your head.

After dinner, delicious by the way – so easy and really really yum – I remembered the Strawberry Mille Feuille sat in the Patisserie Valerie box waiting for me.  Well, when I say remembered, I lie.  That would imply I had forgotten about it.  I hadn’t.  Not for even one minute.  All afternoon, I was counting down the minutes to the children going upstairs and hubby going in the bath so I could sit and eat it in silence, alone, without a single interruption.  This is what people mean by mindful eating, right?

Then the voices in my head started….

“Go and get it, Debs, you’ve waited long enough”

“But I’ve just had a really healthy dinner and feel motivated to be good”

“But you spent £2.95 on it, that’d be a waste of money”

“But I really want to be good, that meal was delicious and healthy”

“But one cheat a week isn’t a bad thing, you’ve been good all week”

“But I feel inspired and want to try new healthy recipes”

“But you only go to Patisserie Valerie once or twice a year”

“But if I have that, I know I will want other unhealthy stuff”

“No, after a gorgeous cake of that quality, every thing else will taste cheap and nasty”

“No it wouldn’t”

I am not proud to admit that I gave into the naughty voice and I consumed every last spec of icing sugar of the cake.  I can share that it was worth every penny!

How do you choose whether to eat that cake?

So this morning, I woke up and I listened to my Slimpod.  Normally after a dramatic fail, I would think “oh sod it, let’s start again on Monday” but I didn’t.  I had not had chance made time to listen to Trevor (my Slimpod) on Friday or Saturday and I know the Slimpod works.

I had initially woke on Thursday morning and thought “take away tonight, I am so tired”  but I listened to my Slimpod on Thursday morning and immediately started cooking two healthy dinner options in the slow cooker.

I know from experience if I had listened to him before we headed to Canterbury, I would have bypassed the cake shop without a second thought.

So this – the Slimpod – is how I cope with the voices when it concerns food.  There is also a Slimpod for fitness which helps to get you up off the sofa and more active.

Procrastination

However, I now need something to help when the conversation is about writing a blog post, filling out a form or making a phone call.  I have always been the Queen of Procrastination so any tips and ideas would be much appreciated.

Sign Up

Don’t forget to sign up for updates direct in to your inbox.  I will be sharing more tips and ideas on dealing with the voices in your head in a positive way soon.

[mc4wp_form id=”1446″]

Disclaimer

This post contains affiliate links. In plain English, this means that I may receive a small commission (at no cost to you) if you subscribe or purchase something through the links provided. You will never see me post a link to a product or service that I haven’t used myself and love!