This is not about “righteous not-eating or dieting.” It’s about chocolate turtle cheesecake, the Emotional Guidance System, and the Thinking Guidance System. The obsession with dieting (that doesn’t work or we would have fixed the problem)…is a product of the Emotional Guidance System.  The EGS drives both the self-torture of repeated starvation-feel artificially great-hate yourself business. The Thinking Guidance System is not about skinny-not-eating-on-a-diet Good Person vs. not-skinny-not-buying-the-latest-Jones-Smith-diet Bad Person. Who needs that?

I admit that I’m too lazy and preoccupied to take an interest in cooking, and luckily my laziness and preoccupation carries over to even going to the trouble to eat. Though I’ve always been the same size, I’m sure if I got into dieting like I do say–writing mysteries–I’d be fat in little time. I’m emphasizing this because clients usually think I’m gearing up to talk about dieting and suffering and self-torture gifts of the Emotional Guidance System that we are trying to tame.

Okay.  I’m at my branch National World Headquarters, the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport. I’ve had most of a cheese burger   with fries and I want something sweet. I order up the chocolate turtle cheesecake and am brought a small sailboat made out of fudge and sweet cheese and nuts.   Right away I go through the facts, “This is way bigger than I anticipated. If I let my EGS control this situation with statements like, “This is so good I should eat all of it because I’ll never have the chance to have something this special again.” “If I sin by eating it, I might as well eat it all.” And, the worst emotional reasoning, “This cost six bucks, I must eat all of it regardless of the consequences.”

The “Fettucini Incident” when I ignored the gastro-intestinal side effects fresh on my mind, I determined I’d eat the amount equal to what I expected the dessert to be.  I’m not being a good American woman who constantly thinks about her wait and believes chocolate turtle cheesecake is the work of the devil. (or a Dr. L, who has none of the human desires) I am desperately forcing myself to THINK through what I will feel like on the plane having just eaten a crate of sugar and chocolate. That’s it. Chocolate not bad, cheesecake not bad. I’m not bad. I simply do not want to be sick. No halo here.

I won! This doesn’t happen often, but that’s where we’re going, right? A tiny step at a time toward a Self-Defined Life.

Welcome Australia folks.  Sorry about comments impossibility. I’m working on it.