The Candy Jar Falls in Defeat

At school, today was a Student Data Review Day. This meant that I was going to be sitting in a conference room all day as teachers rotated through to talk about each of their students.

I walked in the conference room and immediately froze. In the middle of the table was a large candy jar filled to the top as well as homemade cookies. Normally, I would have been thrilled to see both of these but not today. I am 2 weeks into my No Candy/Dessert Challenge. It is my way to try and cut out some extra sugar from my diet. I usually have no willpower around sweets of any kind so today was going to be a big challenge for sure.

My colleagues around the table were very supportive. They moved both the cookies and candy jar as far from me as possible. I told them that if I dare to reach for one that someone needs to slap my hand. I really meant that!

I did a really good job focusing on the discussions about students until 2 hours in. Then my eyes started searching out those sweets. Could I see them from my vantage point? Oh yes, I could and those cookies were calling my name. Thankfully, we took a break and I was able to go get the healthy snack I packed for the day, That raised my willpower battery back to 100%.

For the next hour or so, I had thoughts running around in my head. “Don’t look that way!”, “Focus on the data on the display screen”, “You are not really hungry, you just want it because it is there.”. I am sure I missed parts of conversations as I talked myself out of reaching for a sweet. As lunch break approached, I was still winning the sweet battle!

Returning after lunch, I was in a new seat which was closer to the candy jar. I could hear it talking to me- “Come on, Cathy, you can have one. You deserve it after all the work today. Reward yourself.” It was so tempting but I pulled my brain to focus on the last discussions of students.

The day ended. I didn’t give in. I actually had willpower- which is a first. It was a SWEET victory! I enjoyed the taste of that!