A Lesson in Temptation & Planning Ahead

We’ve all been tempted. When you’re on a diet, though, temptation is literally EVERY WHERE.

Case in point: I wake up a little late for class, and I still have to print a handout for my presentation. Now, I have a dilemma. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Especially when it is the first and only chance you have to eat until 1:45pm. BUT, so is getting a good grade on my class presentation, getting a good grade in my class and graduating from college. Obviously, it was an easy choice to skip breakfast so that I could get to class in time with the handout.

I don’t get to class on time (bad way to start a presentation) but it wasn’t because I stopped to eat breakfast. It just so happens that my printer was being a *blip* and wouldn’t print what I needed. Different story, different blog. It was a good thing that my professor likes me, because she graded my presentation without penalty.  Now that I know I did well on my presentation, the day is starting to look MUCH better. But I’m hungry now, and the last thing I needed was my stomach growling during my Philosophy of the Mind class (if my stomach growled, and there was no one around to hear it, did my stomach REALLY growl?) or during my Metaphysics class (was it my choice not to eat breakfast that caused my stomach to growl, or was my stomach growl AND my choice not to eat breakfast pre-determined by past events and therefore not really a choice of freewill at all?). Believe me when I say…. I was tempted.

I was tempted to grab a we-can’t-possibly-pile-any-more-cheese-on-this-bun burger. (Allow me to create an aside to tell you that my campus is SURROUNDED by fast food joints. There’s a McDonalds, a Burger King, a Wendy’s, and an Arby’s all within 50 feet of the building I was in). Now, I don’t know if this was done just to tempt my willpower…. but believe me it was HELL. And to top it off, I only had 15 minutes in between class if I really did want to eat. You mean, I could buy a burger and some fries, get it in 5 minutes and still have 10 minutes to wolf it down? Ohhhh, the temptation. And at 11am, ALL the resturaunts are preparing for lunch. So the air was alive with smell-good temptation.

I ultimately decided against fast food. My stomach did growl in Philosophy of Mind (if my stomach growls, and all the students have been lulled to sleep by boredom, did my stomach really growl?). Apparently no one was paying attention, I got no funny looks. When 1:45pm came around, I was HUNGRY! And again tempted… but once you overcome temptation, it makes it easier to overcome the second time. I came home and had a healthy, satisfying and all-together delicious turkey roll-up. Life was good! Life IS good!

So, the moral of the story is: don’t put yourself in a situation that could end with giving in to unhealthy. Plan ahead. Had I packed a lunch the night before, I could have grabbed it on my way out the door, and had lunch between classes.

By the way: It has been a week since I first started my diet. I am now 5 lbs lighter… WOOO! So take THAT temptation and SHOVE it!