Journal Entry: Cookies on the Elevator
I’ve been thinking a lot about cravings lately. I’ve read that cravings don’t last. I’ve read that if I can interrupt a craving, it will go away.
So I’ve decided to try some EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) to avert the impending disaster of a binge.
When I feel a craving, I’m going to tap my fingers on points around my face, head, hands and body in the hopes that it will release whatever energy may be blocked; the technique is based on acupuncture, so there’s precedent.
When I feel a craving, I’ll tap… sounds easy enough.
Well, my friends… it’s not as easy as it sounds. There’s a problem; I don’t want to tap. I don’t want to let go of my cravings. I don’t want anything to come between me and my food!
The space between a craving and its satisfaction is very short. That moment, when a craving has taken hold and satisfaction is imminent, is so sweet… and so treacherous. In fact, my binges are not about the food, they're all about that moment.
I enter the elevator holding a mint green bag of Tate's Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies, the crunchy ones that are just delicious when dunked in a cup of coffee, milk, or a nice earl grey tea.
But I’m not waiting to dunk, I want one now.
As soon as the elevator door closes, I press the floor number, tear open the bag and pull out the first cookie. It’s thin and crisp and full of chips.
I’m holding it in my hand when the door opens and I’m joined by a nicely dressed older man with white hair and a stack of mail. Just as I lift the cookie to my mouth, he reaches past me to the elevator buttons and cuts off my access to the morsel in my hand.
“Hey,” I cry. “Never get between a girl and her cookies!”
For a moment, the man looks stunned, then he smiles and says “if I did that to my wife she’d bite my arm off!”
I offer him a cookie, but he declines, sharing the fact that he prefers his chocolate chip cookies on the soft side. There’s a great divide between those who prefer their cookies crunchy and those who prefer them soft and chewy.
We laugh and chat for another minute until he steps off the elevator… and then, when I’m alone again, I take the first bite.
But the spell has been broken. I do a round of EFT, close the bag and put it away.
And I’m not sure if it was the laughter or the tapping, but something worked.
