I experienced a small success today that I'd like to share. For those of you who don't know, I'm a junior/senior high school teacher. I mostly teach English Language Arts, but they squeeze a few other courses into my schedule as well (one being a jr. fitness class).
Today, a couple senior highs walk into my room and plop a beautiful slice of chocolate cake down on my desk, complete with icing and sprinkles. I was helping some other students with essay writing and didn't get a chance to talk with these two girls, but I saw the cake sitting there. Calling my name. Begging not to be left alone. Needing to fulfill it purpose in . . . well, you get the picture. If I'm making you hungry, think of how I must have felt.
I put off going to my desk, busying myself with other students until the end of the day. This isn't the first time this senior high food studies class has dropped off tasty food for me to sample, but it was the first time since I decided to cut out processed carbs. And this cake was nothing but processed carbs. I faced a dilemma. I didn't really want to eat the cake, but I also didn't want to disappoint the girls when they asked how it was. And I certainly couldn't just throw it in the garbage in front of a class of grade 9's. The boys would kill me. Trying to divide it amongst the class was also out of the question.
But I walked out of the situation feeling pretty good about myself. I waited until the end of class, the end of the day, took a baby finger swipe of icing (seriously, just a taste, not a glob) and the tiniest corner of cake (again smaller than a mouse would eat). And I threw the rest in the garbage. It was delicious. I wanted more. But I didn't eat more. And I didn't have to lie to the girls about how good it was either.
Anyone else have any success stories to share?
Jonathan Groff
Well done! I, on the other hand, have been slipping the other way.
ReplyDelete"Man, I don't feel like eating eggs this morning - I'll just have some toast..."
"Meh, why not - I'll have the whole-wheat bun with my chili at lunch..."
Thanks for the blog. Time for me to get back on the horse! I've got several more inches I want to lose before the summer!
I appreciate your comments and posts as well. I am really hoping this can be the encouragement I need to succeed this time as well. I like your comments about failure being inevitable, but that we need to minimize that and get right back to it. This blog might be just the thing to keep a lot of people going. Thanks for sharing. Feel free to pass the URL on to anyone else you like, and I can add them as contributors as well, if they like.
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