it is still very hard to keep my eating ambitions in check. What I did again was over estimate my capacity when making some pancakes for myself this morning. As I sit here writing this, my stomach feels like I swallowed a basketball. It must just be the mystique of eating a "stack" of pancakes that has become an ingrained program in not only my mind, but, and I think it's safe to say, the minds of most people. It's like it's just something you do when you put on the pancake feed-bag...load up, right? What else could it be? There I am dolloping the mix onto the grill and, all the while, in my heart-of-hearts know I am putting too much on the grill. Ahrg! No matter. I can eat them, and I'll be alright. I won't be too full. Ah, the little mind games we play with ourselves when it comes time to deciding how much we are going to "get" to eat. We delude ourselves into thinking we need this, and, of course, there will be no harm done. Other than the feeling of being oppressively full which is probably the least of the harm, but what about the way stuffing oneself pushes the abdomen out ever further? This is how we get a big "gut", by repeatedly extending the demarcation line ever farther. I'm reminded of that Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs Bunny draws a line in the sand and dares Yosemite Sam to step over it, which the ornery and fearless Yosemite doesn't hesitate to do and at which point Bugs just draws another, and another line that Sam steps over with alacrity each and every time, ad infinitum, till they are drawing and stepping off into the sunset.
Isn't that the way it is for all of us? We have both those cartoon characters in us because we really do know where the line is, but we always error on the side of excess and step over that imaginary but, nonetheless, very real line in our minds. Then, once we do take that step, the other programming kicks in. Anyone know what that is? I'll give you a hint...Mom's clean your plate club. One of the most powerful and lasting pieces of programming ever devised, and by none other than our well-meaning mothers. When that food is on our plates we become duty bound to finish it, even if it means stuffing it down our throats till our eyes bulge out, and bulge they do! So I don't know about you, but I'm going to try and hang on to the image of that little ballet/duel between Yosemite and Bugs, in the hope that the next time "I'ma dollopin", it will give me pause, and I'll do the right thing and NOT step over that line again.
Ooops!! I Did It Again!
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