“My father used to say to me, ‘Whenever you get into a jam, whenever you get into a crisis or an emergency, become the calmest person in the room and you’ll be able to figure your way out of it.’ ———–Rudolph Giuliani ******* During one of my WW meetings earlier this week a member (and now friend), Janet, was sharing an experience that I found particularly interesting and very relatable, so I thought you might too!———-She was sharing how one evening she started eating some “”snacky”” food, I think it was crackers or something along that line, and as she kept eating them she started thinking “”Oh to heck with it, these are really tasty. I’m just going to eat whatever I feel like tonight and make tomorrow a new day.”” For whatever reason though, after the crackers and before she moved onto something else, she decided to track what she had eaten so far. When she did, she was surprised to learn she was actually still below her target! She was even MORE surprised to realize how disappointed she was that she no longer had her own permission to chow down! Instead, she had a decision to make: Consciously throw away the day or stop eating now and stay on track!! How funny AND relatable is that? Don’t know about you, but I’ve been there before! Rather than being happy we have stayed within our Points, our Evil Twin says to us: “”Darn, I did better than I thought so I have no good excuse to just eat fun anymore! This stinks!””————–In analyzing the above situation, its clear that her effort to track, even with the intention of eating more afterwards, was what stopped a snacking frenzy in mid-stream and helped her gain composure—even if part of her didn’t even want composure! Being calm and not panicking can be a huge help to us when trying to change behaviors that we have participated in for a long time. It’s so common for us to panic or feel nervous when we have to do something different such as say no to a second helping, even though we know we are no longer hungry. Or when we feel we have “”messed up””. We want so badly to “”do well”” which often translates into being perfect (in our minds) and when we aren’t we become anxious and uncomfortable and our first instinct is to just give up and give in.——At these times, if we can teach ourselves to become calm, the discomfort and anxiety will flee and more than likely, the right answers will come to us. There is always another choice but it’s hard to hear it unless our minds are calmed and quieted.———Have a great rest of the day