‘You Carry the Blame.‘ - Improving my Diet - Part 4.
How- oh how- does one break a bad habit.
Went down to the shop again.
XL Galaxy Bar, 2 diet cokes and a fridge raiders packet.
Fried up some eggs and had them with some bread.
It was a fine breakfast, but not a healthy one.
I saw this video of Tom Grennan working out with Mo Farah. I saw it ages ago.
I can’t name any of his songs but I know he remains a hot shot singer.
Tom talks about realising he had ‘a bad relationship with alcohol’.
However, he also comments that ‘some people can drink and some people can do drugs, they can […] stay out late and they can […] get lucky mate and get to the top. But not me mate, I can’t do that man’.
It’s an interesting thought. I can drink, and I’ve never had an issue with alcohol. However, I relate to something in this extract, I can relate it to junk food.
It goes back to the Matthew Perry thing. ‘All I had control over was the first drink’.
I always have to clarify, I’m a Hitchensian thinker as it pertains to this issue. That is not a framework I use to judge others. It’s a philosophy that helps me personally. I don’t use the addiction framework for myself, as it seems like giving myself an out. The addiction concept implies a lack of control. I cannot stress enough that I am not judging others, for whom the addiction concept may apply. But I feel that I always have choices, and therefore I tend to shy away from psychologised concepts when I reflect on my situation with food.
However, if someone seems to always be intoxicated, it becomes descriptively true that they are unable to stop. They are an alcoholic in the sense that they always practice the choice. This would be a consequentialist position.
To explain this a bit further, someone who abuses someone whilst intoxicated is as much responsible as if they did so soberly. However, the choice to intoxicate has multifaceted causes, and therefore a person could allude to a state of ‘addiction’ whilst not absolving themself of responsibility. I do get that, and Sir Farah alludes to this position in the video: “We wanna blame it on other things […] to actually get hold of it and go ‘this is the case’- it takes courage”.
My habits with food and sodas relate to the addiction concept. I think this is the first time I’ve accepted the notion of food addiction as something germaine to me. I had two really good days of eating well and not drinking carbonated drinks. Then I had a tiny packet of haribo, and the diet coke which was kindly offered to me at the Scouting event. If you’re the person who offered it- you are a wonderful person- and it’s not your problem. It’s mine.
I consumed that stuff and it opened the sleuce gates. Now I’m sitting here, it’s the following tuesday, and I just ate a giant chocolate bar as part of my breakfast meal, washed down with a litre of diet coke. These impromptu shopping trips aren’t the half of it.
My mother is the first person who pointed out how one thing leads to another. It’s almost funny how correct she was.
I know I will consume more soda later today because I have a stressful commitment. That’s the truth of it. It’s a choice that I know I will make.
I would say that loved ones have given me really good pointers as regards to making better habits. However, when you consolidate your own understanding, the solutions become more salient, as opposed to when they are simply told to you. That’s the point of this blog post.
This article from the National Institute of Health has some interesting pointers. I’m going to slice in some quotes from the article in blue, and include my thoughts in red.
‘“These routines can become hardwired in our brains,” Volkow says. And the brain’s reward centers keep us craving the things we’re trying so hard to resist.’
In some sense, you just have to be a tough bastard and ride out the sadness which follows. I’ve experienced that from nicotine withdrawal. It does pass.
‘One approach is to focus on becoming more aware of your unhealthy habits. Then develop strategies to counteract them.’
So my hamartia is chocolate and diet coke, and I tend to hike down the road to buy the stuff. So maybe I need to focus on staying busy so I don’t have time to do this. I guess this links into the next point from the article -
‘One way to kick bad habits is to actively replace unhealthy routines with new, healthy ones.’
I’ve already developed a routine for staying busy. I have a daily routine and a weekly one. It includes all my hobbies from the gym to storywriting. I’ve so far been lackluster in my execution of this routine. Maybe now is the time to plunge into it headfirst.
I had spoken to someone at 6th form about nicotine addiction. Alex was his name. He told me that I should go for a run every time I feel a craving. My hobbies are written into my routine like its a roster. So maybe when I feel like a diet coke, I should check the ‘roster’ and think ‘Oh right, I could be down the gym right now.’. Just something to consider.
Anyway, this evening I will certainly consume more diet coke and chocolate. I should note that. I’m going to be filling out forms and entertaining thirty children. I know I will not resist the allure of sugary foods to get me through.
UPDATE: 00:42am. 09/07/2025
I consumed a large cadbury bar and a diet coke can.
I think tomorrow I need to put my routine into effect. See if that works. That includes a 10 p.m. - 6 a.m. sleep schedule.
For reasons of security… and laziness, I will not divulge all of my routine online. But I will report back about my successes and failures.
Watch this space,
Jed.
