Avoiding Temptations

This is a short post that I will probably revisit later. The topic? Avoiding temptations in life. Why today? Because I once again failed, and need the reminder…

I have learned, over the course of many years, that especially at certain points in the day I have very little willpower to avoid temptations. This could be something as simple as avoiding overeating desserts (which I like), to limiting my exposure to social media, to reducing the amount of time I spend watching movies/TV shows/YouTube. To actually achieve my goal in whatever area that is, I often have to completely remove the temptation from my life, or put such severe limitations on it that I cannot easily slip up when I’m tired after work, and I no longer have the willpower to easily keep myself away from whatever the temptation is.

This has taken many extremes over the years. When it comes to food, the only sure-fire way to keep myself from overeating is to intentionally portion control my food as soon as it enters my house, and to avoid anything I can easily snack on. For video content, it has meant removing TVs from my kitchen so I don’t get distracted watching show after show (which leads to more eating too). For social media, it means not keeping anything other than Fosstodon on my phone, and even that is only web-based.

So what triggered this today? I ordered low-carb/keto desserts, because I enjoy them. The problem is, I tend to eat more than a single serving at a time. And when I eat multiple servings, I dislike how I feel afterwards. Yet that never stops me in the moment, nor does that cross my mind. What’s the solution?

I’ve been known in the past to actually throw away whatever is tempting me in the food arena. I may have to do that again tonight. And to keep myself from going there in the first place, I suspect I need to add a safeguard to my Amazon account so that I don’t simply order snacks whenever I feel like it.

Anyhow. That’s where I’m at today. And I’m rather tired due to waking up at 2:30a, so… that’s it till tomorrow.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 47/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.