So here I am, sitting on my couch under two blankets, computer on my lap writing creative content for a friend’s internet marketing agency with a cup of tea on the little table beside me. I opened at my other job this morning, and after a long day at work, I’m finally snuggled in safe at home.
This is my happy place. The only thing missing is, as you probably guessed, a delicious snack. But here’s the problem. As one of my many New Years’ resolutions (some more attainable than others), I’ve decided I’m going to try to cut out a little bit of sugar from my daily routine. Certainly not all sugar, bless me, let’s not be crazy, but some.
Just that one step towards being a little healthier. We’ve all been there, right? Problem is, sugar is delicious. And because it’s so delicious, I’ve made it a bad habit to make things that are made basically entirely of sugar very, very accessible in my house. I try not to even buy stuff with a ton of sugar in it, because once it’s in my house, I’m doomed.
Unfortunately, with the holiday season comes a ton of delicious candy, and I can hardly say no to such temptations at Christmas! So, as I sit here, right beside me, sitting on the same table as my tea, is a cup full of candy canes, and a cup full of life savers. All I’d have to do it stretch out my hand, and they’d be mine.
Meanwhile, I look across the room to where I have my fruit basket sitting on top of a book shelf. There, I see clementines and bananas. Sure, they still have sugar in them, but I can justify eating sugar from a natural source when it comes with some vitamins (unlike candy canes, for instance, which come with … I’m pretty sure sugar is basically the only ingredient).
Now, it’s not that I’m lazy. It’s not that I don’t want to take the four steps across the room to grab a few clementines. That’s not my problem. My problem is the blankets, the computer, and the perfect indentation I’ve made in the couch cushion that would surely need to be reworked if I were to get up even for a moment. So it’s not laziness, it’s more coziness, I guess you could say, that keeps me on the couch.
And it’s not that I don’t recognize what’s happening, it’s not that I don’t understand that the problem could be fixed by switching the fruit with the candy, it’s just that at this particular moment, the candy is within arm’s reach, and the fruit isn’t.
So, needless to say, two candy canes later, here I am, feeling only slightly guilty (they are just the little candy canes, after all), and with a fully-satisfied sugar craving. Maybe when I next get up from the couch (who knows when that will be), I’ll switch the candy with the fruit, making it more accessible from the little nest I’ve created here. Then again … maybe I won’t.
(Basically, I am all of these dogs right now … especially that husky.)