Friday, August 2, 2013

Making Rules to help Break Old Habits

At the beginning of this year I made one substantial resolution, if you want to call it a resolution, and that was to not allow myself to buy seasonal foods on sale, or sale foods in general.  "Sale" foods are 1/2 price deals (or even a bigger discount) often Holiday candy and cookies, but any food I would not normally buy, that is part of my regular nutritional diet, is a no-no rule!

This is a rule I felt was time to implement to help me break acting out the unconscious habit of buying, therefore eating, certain foods I don't really want in the first place.  I used to find myself buying, and eating, foods that triggered that darn reaction of fear, as if I'll be missing out, I don't have enough, or I'll never again be able to buy those foods at that price.  The fear of scarcity.

I can't tell you haw many times, out of habit, I see those carts or shelves piled high with 50% off foods and, out of habit, I make a beeline right for them!  And I confess I'll look through them, moving stuff around to see if there is anything I want at the bottom!  But then I always come back to the rule.  Even if it's something I can use, like instant oatmeal in those convenient cups (for $.50 a piece) I simply am not allowed.  This has made my life so much easier!

I don't like to use the word "trigger", but for lack of a better way of describing it, are you triggered by certain food situations, or certain foods in general?  Have you made any rules that have helped you break an old unconscious habit?  There is much more to write about this, but for now, I'm off to the gym!

Have a great day!



Photo above is what I walked into in the front of my grocery store the other day!  Did I look through the carts?  Yep!  Did I buy anything?  Nope!  

4 comments:

Maribel said...

If you could take your determination and drive and bottle it up, you'd be a gazillionaire! There are quite a few bad habits I've picked up again in the last few months that I need to get a hold of.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Maribel,

Yeah...I'm working on the gazillionaire thing! lol

Get a grip girlfriend, get a grip!

Diana said...

This is not a "food" thing, but along the same lines....every time I see a gigantic bin full of DVD's on sale, you know the ones, they are loaded with old movies or tv shows and they're all on sale for like $3. I always dig threw those damn things and I have yet to actually buy something. It's always the SHIT movies/tv shows just as it's always SHIT food in those carts...yet always drawn just to catch that look. Funny how we just "have to"...

Tracy Reifkind said...

Diana,

Until we change it!

I can totally imagine a day when I walk right by that stuff without notice! It could be tomorrow!