Weighing In - is "Having to Lose Weight" Your Emotional Junk Drawer?
Posted by Alicia Leeds on Tue, Aug 03, 2010 @ 06:10 PM
Last week I did a little research on Junk Drawers. I have one where all the little things I don't have a place for but I don't want to throw away right now end up. Every once in a while the drawer gets full and I need to take the time to clean it out.
Many of the people I queried have a Junk Drawer, too. What's in there? Broken toys, safety pins, the owners manual for the blender, a Bed Bath and Beyond Coupon, gum, staples, bandaids and a tiny snack pack of cashews from Jet Blue. (Your old HMR record book? that's there, too!)
The Junk Drawers are full of stuff (useful or not) that people have decided to deal with later and it occurred to me recently that "Having to Lose Weight" is like an emotional Junk Drawer for those of us who struggle with food and weight.
Think about it. You go to your mother's house and she says something and pretty soon you find your hand in the cookie jar. Or your coworker takes the credit for the multimedia project you worked hard on last month and suddenly you find yourself eating the stale donuts in the break room. Or Verizon is threatening to shut off your daughter's cell because she owes $600, and you find yourself polishing off the Cheezits as you write out a check.
Whatever you might be feeling about your parent, coworker, offspring (or maybe just the driver of the Hummer in front of you) goes into the emotional Junk Drawer and you find yourself snacking. Then as soon as you have finished off the pint of Ben and Jerry's, you hear the familiar voice say " why did I eat that?". And now what are you thinking about? "Having to Lose Weight".
So instead of dealing with being mad, frustrated, disappointed or upset with whatever situation is at hand, you're mad, frustrated, disappointed, and upset with yourself for doing what you always do which is eating your way out of the Junk Drawer. And you'll do it again until the Junk Drawer gets too full and you decide to clean it out. Yes, You are going on a diet.
So the next time Aunt Bessie comes over and she tells you what a delightful meal your sister prepared last week, but how she really does appreciate that your mother never taught you to cook and what could you do in this tiny kitchen you have anyway? And now you don't have any Cracker Jacks to fall back on... all of a sudden you have no Junk Drawer to put Aunt Bessie in. You are already dealing with "Having to Lose Weight", and so now you have to deal with Aunt Bessie, too.
Taking care of "Having to Lose Weight" is like gluing the Junk Drawer shut. Of course you could open other drawers like "Getting out of Debt" but that's Suze Orman's specialty.
I am not saying that the challenges we face in life are trivial like the items we throw in the Junk Drawer - I am saying that when we finally decide that "Having to Lose Weight" cannot be the Junk Drawer of our complicated lives - we get to face those challenges head on, right now. Do not pass Mickey D's do not collect a quarter pounder with a side of fries.