Monday, October 25, 2010

There are two ways to handle temptation: avoid the source of it, or consciously resisting it or not feeling it in the first place. The relative ease of them depends on the person doing it and what the thing in question is, and one is probably not better than the other overall.

However, a problem comes when someone who relies on avoiding the source of temptation (me) moves in with someone who doesn't feel temptation eat like a pig and/or can resist that temptation relatively easily (T.). A general, ongoing, minor problem since the move has been T.'s habit of keeping candy around as a snack. In particular, she hoards chocolate. She actually buys the stuff or collects freebies just in case some day comes when she gets hungry or depressed or otherwise feels the need, and then she'll be able to have some. The thing is, she collects it faster than she gets around to eating it. Really, this is more cute than anything else; you should see how enthusiastic she gets about Halloween and Easter, the candy-collecting holidays.

The problem is, I don't eat well. I usually order large meals, I don't eat particularly healthy food (pescatarianism is mostly an attempt to help that, but fried shrimp is still pescatarian... for better or for worse), and I snack absent-mindedly when I'm bored and something is convenient. All this is fine in theory; in my last two homes I avoided eating like a huge pig by avoiding the temptation to eat junk food in the first place. Instead, I kept healthy snack foods around, like baby carrots and fruit (not-so-healthy stuff too, occasionally, like crackers, but mostly healthy stuff), and rarely order meals that are too much for one person.

Obviously, T.'s chocolate-hoarding habit, while cute, is a problem for my absent-mindedly-snacking habit. And last night, when eating at a "restaurant week" event, I realized that I need to be better about portion control too. I mean, if I ever again order from a prix fixe menu, please slap me hard unless I'm famished. I could barely walk when we left that place.

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