Have you been struggling with cravings that get you all twisted up in knots? Back in 2007 after I made the decision to stop dieting, I gave my cravings a lot of thought because they really were ruling my life. So I began to play with my food, to untangle it’s emotional hold on my life. I’ve always loved the red fish-shaped gummy candies known as Swedish Fish. Although they come in assorted flavors, red are the only ones I really love. But it wasn’t until after I explored how they tasted, that I discovered why I loved this candy so much. I chose to explore those candies that day. You can try this experiment with any food you want.
Back in 2007 my daughter, Cara was 11 years old. We were driving to the local Pathmark® As usual, I was chattering away a mile a minute, telling Cara all about a great idea of mine. I was caught up in my excitement, waving my hands in the air, taking them both off the steering wheel momentarily …
In between my exclamations of “it’s going to be so fabulous”and “I can’t wait,” I realized that the slight tickle I had in my throat when we left the house, had now progressed to a full scale hack. Trying to ignore the fact that I starting to sound like a frog was in my throat, I continued to sputter on.
Cara shot me a look of ‘Disapproving Daughter’ over my hysterically flying hands, only a teenage girl could pull off. Then she cut me off saying “Mom, as long as we’re at the store, let’s get you some cough drops to keep in the car.
As we were discussing which of the horrible tasting drops were the least terrible, my thoughts fell upon a special childhood memory of mine. On summer weekends, I would stay at my Grammie and Grandpa’s house in River Edge, New Jersey.
Whenever I visited them, I loved the safety of reading quietly in their room. My favorite spot was sitting on the floor, facing the window. To this day, I still love sitting on the floor. As I turned the pages of my latest Nancy Drew Mystery novel, I could see and hear the sound of the birds chirping outside.
On Grammie’s night table she always kept a supply of Luden’s cherry cough drops. I loved, loved, loved everything about them–the pretty white box with the bright red printing on it, the oval shape of the drops, the way they felt in my mouth, how they tasted and just made me feel so loved.
In fact, I remember times when I pretended to have a cough just so that I could enjoy them. So you can imagine that when push came to shove to relieving the irritation in my throat yesterday, I chose my old favorite Grammie drops.
And it was that choice that reminded me of a fun experiment I did when I was first learning how to eat to satisfy my hunger. I wanted to figure out why I had such a mad craving for Swedish Fish. When I got to the
bottom of it, I realized it was my way of recreating those special times with
Grammie and Grandpa.
You may be having a craving for some food that’s got you all twisted up in knots. Here’s a way for you to make sense of it and neutralize the insanity you feel around that food. It’s an experiment that I created. Here’s the link to the original blog post written way back then. Enjoy!
The Great American Swedish Fish Suckers Experiment
Are you looking for a bit of support. I know change is hard. And if you’re not used to treating yourself with more kindness,
it can feel so weird. But nothing but good can from you treating yourself with more respect. That’s why I want to invite you to join my
30 Days to Lovin’ the Skin You’re In Facebook group to connect with the other women there, and feel free to share your experiences
and insights using the exercise above.