What I Learned from my Morning Cup of Coffee

As I said in my thousand tree post from last week, there seems to be countless little problems I have with eating. My obesity is like a plane crash: there's not just one thing that led me here, there's a series of problems that made it happen. Maybe there's a thousand little problems that got me to almost 2.5 times my ideal body weight.

Taking the Craving Change class several months ago has helped me become aware of the many little problems food and I have in our relationship. Although much of these minor revelations happen sporadically over a long period of time. Nonetheless, I'm learning, albeit slowly.

So as you may have heard, I've been brewing a really good cup of coffee at home in the mornings (with a single cup coffee maker) and have eliminated my Tim Horton's/McDonald's coffee ritual. Usually I have one regular sized cup of coffee and look forward to it each morning.

When I was enjoying a particularly good cup the other morning, I had a typically-unhelpful self-nurturing thought. I thought it was a really amazing cup of coffee, therefore I must brew a second one. I didn't need a second one, I just felt that I deserved to experience more pleasure. If some pleasure is good, more must be better, right? Not always the case with food. We start losing that level of pleasure as we eat more.

I suspect people without eating problems will enjoy their cup of coffee, rave about it maybe, but they know something tasting good isn't a license to over-indulge. I know that cup will be there tomorrow, just as good.  It's a Keurig, so it's foolproof. But there's a voice inside me that regularly tells me to have more when something is good. Or maybe when I'm having a crappy day. Or maybe because my sports team lost. Or who knows the number of reasons I have to impulsively overeat?

I should keep a list.