Day 6....Coping Cake

Well, there was not as much bounce in my step when getting out of bed this morning. But, it wasn't too bad. I only pressed snooze once, okay maybe twice. I did feel pretty tired, but not overwhelmingly. Just sort of calm and even energy.

I am noticing that my willpower is waning today. Bread started some of it's rotten shenanigans again, so I had to bring out my sheriff star to remind it who's boss. My kids LOVE bread and butter for a snack and so every time I had to bring out the loaf for my wee ones, bread was all like, "You know you want me. You know I want yoooou. You know you want meeeeee. You know I want you." in his best impression of Pitbull and I have to admit, at one point I had the bread in my mouth taking a bite without even realizing it. Once I became conscious, I was able to put the bread down and slowly back away, but man. That was hard.

In the book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Anchor, he talks about how we humans have a finite amount of willpower on any given day. You start the day with all of your willpower charged up, sort of like your cell phone. But, as the day progresses, the green bar begins to fade away. It's always perplexed me that some days I feel charged all day long, and at the end of the day the green bar is still really prominent. But other days, it's like I forgot to plug in my battery at all.

So, what Anchor says (and what the research says) is that we need to use our willpower wisely. You can literally use up a big portion of your daily dose of will just getting out of bed. Think about all of those little things (and sometimes huge things) we force ourselves to do every single day. Eat breakfast. Work out. Have patience with the kids. Have patience with our spouse. Have patience with our co-workers. Not flip off of the guy who just cut us off on the freeway. You get it, right? By the end of the day we are exhausted, and then there is another list of to-dos. Make a healthy dinner. Run the kids around to their activities. Run yourself around to your activities. Not eat the whole bag of cookies sitting on your counter. The further we get into our day, the harder it is to stay away from those cookies on the counter. It's no wonder that we have no willpower when our lives are so full of "must-do's."

Here's the thing, our brains don't really like to think. Our brains like to be on automatic to conserve energy and be efficient. Hence habits. Think about it, have you ever driven home, pulled in the driveway and thought, I don't remember getting here? Kinda freaky I know, but this is your brain functioning in the way it is supposed to. Thinking about every little move we make is taxing, and in prehistoric times dangerous. So to put this into context, when we do have to think and even force ourselves through our day, we are exhausted, unhappy, and less likely to reach our goals.

The solution? Remove unnecessary obstacles. Research has shown that we are significantly less likely to do something if we add just 20 seconds to that task. Anchor's advice is that if you are trying to create a new habit, simply subtract 20 seconds from the task. Create an environment that is conducive to the success you want.

So, in my battle with bread that means placing the bread out of sight. And not only placing it out of site, but in a place that is "difficult" to get to. Basically, I need to throw bread's ass in jail, which works out seeing as how I am sheriff. Now, if only I could use the Jedi Mind Trick to convince my children that this bread is not the bread they are looking for...

Anywho, below you will find what I ate today. My Coping Cake is gone which makes me sad. I will miss him dearly, but he is replaceable, I saw a gluten free pumpkin pie at . And I just might need to stop by and pick him up, seeing how I want to conserve all of my willpower for bread and all.

Horrocks

Breakfast:
1/2 pkg oatmeal
1.5 scrambled eggs
1 Kiwi fruit
1 FREE Grande, soy, 1.5 pump Caramel Macchiato (Oh starbucks you get me! You really get me!)

Lunch:
1 cup cooked Broccoli
1/4 Cup of raisins
6oz grilled chicken
Sesame ginger dressing
 (All mixed together, would have been even better with a handful of blanched almond)
Handful of GF tortillas
Coping cake - really unsure how much, but it is getting low.

Dinner:
Chicken and Rice Stew
Some tortilla chips
The Last of the Coping Cake
1 Woodchuck Hard Cider