Breaking the Chains
It's funny how sometimes a simple enjoyable pastime can morph into a full blown addiction. Most of us have probably been there at one time or another. (Addicted to Facebook, anyone?) Certainly we've seen it firsthand in this house with J and his video games.
I'm not immune to this phenomenon, but my worst habit-turned-nearly-into-obsession is not a common one. It's reading while I eat. I started reading books while eating years ago, as a latchkey child. When my all my friends ended up in a different lunch period than me in junior high, I checked out library books that I read while munching my sack lunch. Even as a missionary (with only five books on my approved reading list outside the scriptures,) I read while eating any time I could. I read Jesus the Christ or The Book of Mormon while absently spooning my black beans and cheese into my mouth. After years and years of this, it had gotten to the point where I couldn't sit down to eat without looking around for a book. And if I was reading (which I do a lot of) I wanted to be snacking on something. With Terence working during dinner time, I almost always read something while eating and essentially ignored my kids. Possibly why their dinner always seemed to end up on the floor or ground into the living room couch without me even noticing.
Not healthy behavior at all.
I've wanted to change this for a long, long time. I know it's better if I actually interact with my kids while we eat, and it's definitely harder to overeat if I don't mindlessly shovel anything within reach into my mouth with my eyes plastered to a book. So last year, my mother offered to put $50 into a furniture fund for every month I didn't eat while reading at all. What a generous offer, and a powerful motivator!
Did it work?
No. This is when I figured out that I really had a serious issue here. I made it one month before giving in, and it was such a relief to give up the fight. Literally I had to battle with myself EVERY TIME I ATE not to pick up a book or a magazine. I got so desperate I would read the back of the cereal box and try to tell myself that it wasn't really reading.
HOWEVER, I have decided to try and conquer this particular Goliath of mine again. So I just wanted to share that it has now been more than 3 weeks since I have read anything while eating. Dinner has been so much better, and I feel like I am actually enjoying my kids during it instead of fighting an internal war against the urge to grab a novel. So things are getting better. . . but I'm coming up on that month mark where I blew it last time.
So I am officially telling all of you about it to help motivate me to make it past the month mark. I'm pretty sure I can do it this time (go me!) but a little extra accountability never hurt.
Here's to freedom from one more bad habit!
I'm not immune to this phenomenon, but my worst habit-turned-nearly-into-obsession is not a common one. It's reading while I eat. I started reading books while eating years ago, as a latchkey child. When my all my friends ended up in a different lunch period than me in junior high, I checked out library books that I read while munching my sack lunch. Even as a missionary (with only five books on my approved reading list outside the scriptures,) I read while eating any time I could. I read Jesus the Christ or The Book of Mormon while absently spooning my black beans and cheese into my mouth. After years and years of this, it had gotten to the point where I couldn't sit down to eat without looking around for a book. And if I was reading (which I do a lot of) I wanted to be snacking on something. With Terence working during dinner time, I almost always read something while eating and essentially ignored my kids. Possibly why their dinner always seemed to end up on the floor or ground into the living room couch without me even noticing.
Not healthy behavior at all.
I've wanted to change this for a long, long time. I know it's better if I actually interact with my kids while we eat, and it's definitely harder to overeat if I don't mindlessly shovel anything within reach into my mouth with my eyes plastered to a book. So last year, my mother offered to put $50 into a furniture fund for every month I didn't eat while reading at all. What a generous offer, and a powerful motivator!
Did it work?
No. This is when I figured out that I really had a serious issue here. I made it one month before giving in, and it was such a relief to give up the fight. Literally I had to battle with myself EVERY TIME I ATE not to pick up a book or a magazine. I got so desperate I would read the back of the cereal box and try to tell myself that it wasn't really reading.
HOWEVER, I have decided to try and conquer this particular Goliath of mine again. So I just wanted to share that it has now been more than 3 weeks since I have read anything while eating. Dinner has been so much better, and I feel like I am actually enjoying my kids during it instead of fighting an internal war against the urge to grab a novel. So things are getting better. . . but I'm coming up on that month mark where I blew it last time.
So I am officially telling all of you about it to help motivate me to make it past the month mark. I'm pretty sure I can do it this time (go me!) but a little extra accountability never hurt.
Here's to freedom from one more bad habit!
Comments
My bad thing is standing while I eat. I hate sitting to eat. So boring. But it's easier to snack and graze if I'm standing, and that makes me fatter. I really need to sit to eat more often.