For those of us who need to be very selective on what we eat, one of the most challenging temptations we face is coming into our office or workplace in the morning and seeing a couple of boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts sitting on the table in our lunch room.
Every office has at least one generous co-worker with a sweet tooth who is most probably not too concerned about elevating the blood sugar levels of his or her co-workers.
Walking into that lunchroom first thing in the morning, you can almost taste how delicious one of those freshly made Krispy Kreme glazed donuts would taste, especially with a cup of piping hot coffee.
But having just one of those glazed donuts may not be enough. After all, those original glazed donuts aren’t that big and it would only take a few bites to finish one off. Might as well have a second one, maybe a third.
And once you’ve finished off a couple of those delicious Krispy Kreme donuts and washed them down with a cup of hot coffee, you might begin to ask yourself if that incredibly brief sensation of sugary bliss was worth the feeling of guilt that inevitably follows.
You begin to imagine what that sudden infusion of sugar is doing to your body. You can only guess what your blood sugar will be like in an hour or two. Certainly, there will be a spike in your blood sugar and a crash not too long afterwards.
But even before the physical symptoms are felt, you are already bracing yourself for them, already carrying the burden of regret and anticipating your body’s reaction to all of those sugar and carbs.
At this initial stage of the regret process, you may do a quick cost-benefit analysis, weighing the pleasure of having eaten the donuts against the feelings of regret, guilt, worry, disappointment, and the loss of confidence in your own self-discipline and resolve.
At this point in the process, your cost-benefit analysis hasn’t even begun to tally the actual physical impact the donut will have on your blood sugar. You’re still just calculating the emotional and psychological costs the donut is costing you.
When you begin to tally up what those donuts will cost you in terms of your emotional and physical well being, you realize that eating those donuts provided very little pleasure, but exacted a heavy price on body and mind.
So if this is true, why do we still reach for those donuts when we know how bad a deal it is? Why do we pay so much for something that returns very little value or pleasure?
The same can be asked when we reach for anything that we know is bad for us. Like pizza, ice cream, cookies, or any other sugary, carb-heavy treat or meal.
The simple answer is because we reflexively react to our first impulse to immediately satisfy the craving that is triggered when these kinds of foods are right in front of us or are easily accessible.
If nothing stands between you and the junk food, if there is no barrier or resistance blocking your access to it, such as donuts on a lunchroom table, you may give in to the craving before you have a chance to consider the cost.
The little accountant that lives inside your brain, the one in charge of doing cost-benefit analysis, may be arriving to the party late, after all the donuts have been eaten.
Before your mental accountant shows up, you’ve already made a decision. By the time your internal bean counter shows up, it’s too late. The carbs and sugar are already coursing through your bloodstream and you are now feeling bad about your lack of discipline and self-control. Only now do you realize what a heavy price you paid for such a brief and fleeting pleasure.
If only your internal bookkeeper had shown up first, before you gave in to the temptation, you may have been able to walk away without paying the heavy price.
In our next visit we will share some tips for making sure that your internal accountant is always in front of his 10-key and ready to do the math the next time a box of Krispy Kreme donuts arrives.
