Guilty Pleasures

Are y'all able to balance your guilty pleasures with things that are good for you?

The answer to this question for the first three-quarters of my life would be a resounding, no. As I've aged, however, I have discovered a more balanced ground in this area. Sort of. One of the main areas in which I have found a balance between what is good for me and guilty pleasures is with food and drink. Riiiiight. Ok, just the drink part. 

As a young girl, I ate whatever I wanted as well as whatever was put in front of me. The food prepared by my mother and grandmother was some of the best food I have ever eaten to this very day. In those days, our food was farm fresh and prepared from scratch. No pesticides were used on the plants and the GMO seeds were not an issue in our area. The animals that provided our dairy products were not filled with antibiotics and other toxins and the methods with which they were raised were humane. Even their food was safe. The way they were milked and the eggs gathered did not cause harm to the animals. In other words, the food was safe, tasted fantastic, and did not make us sick or obese and the animals were treated humanely. My eating habits at that time were healthy, for the most part. I mean, there were potato chips and soda. Remember Charles' Chips? And their chocolate chip cookies? My mother had those in the house. Not much, but enough for me to know that they tasted really good. If I wanted Kool-Aid, I had to go to my cousins' house. So, I did. 

My worst guilty pleasure from that same time until recently (no, that's a lie- it still is) was anything sweet. When my grandmother's cakes were available, it wasn't that much of a problem since all of her cakes were made from scratch from those farm fresh dairy products. However, I could often be found eating spoonfuls of white table sugar straight from the bowl. And dumping mounds of it onto my cereal in the mornings. Sodas were another unhealthy downfall of mine that spanned my childhood all the way into my forties. 

Midlife found me not balancing anything between the good and bad. And I became way over weight. It was horrid. I was horrid. I let my unhappiness (and maybe even a bit of depression) dictate my life and I comforted myself with all foods that were not good for me. While I am more aware of a good balance, now, on foods that are good for me and guilty pleasure foods, I still overeat. It is little consolation to the scale that I overeat the healthy stuff. At least the sugary drinks have not been an issue for about 15 years. All I drink is water with the exception of the necessary cup of morning coffee. I've been trying to lose weight and make better choices for about 6 years now. I lose, I gain. I lose, I gain. It goes up and down and it sucks. In my defense, cake and donuts are really, really delicious. As is this sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints that I've almost finished off in one sitting.   

I am not that successful with other guilty pleasures either. I still would rather sit and watch television instead of doing just about anything else. It's embarrassing how much television I watch. The programs aren't that bad, mostly sitcoms (and most of them are old shows with the exception of Big Bang and Last Man Standing) and the only reality tv (if you can even call it that) is HGTV, but it's still tv. Admittedly, a lot of the time, the thing is on for the noise, like right now while I'm writing this but, what would be better is to get up and move. Go outside and play with the dog or garden or make the yard look nice, maybe even paint the house. Even sitting inside, it would be better to do Yoga, play with the dog, clean better, organize, redecorate, read, listen to music...anything other than sitting and watching television. The best way to remedy this situation is to get rid of the television but good luck with that with these people who live here with me. I feel like I'm sitting and waiting for a change and I am not a good wait-er-on-er. I know that some of this is due to laziness but some of it is just because I get bored so easily with everything. Even the television. So, when I move to something else, I just leave the set on. It's crazy. Wait, maybe the guilty pleasure is the noise. Because, now that I think of it, the only time I'm sitting and just watching television is when I'm binge watching some series on Netflix. Oops. And there's another guilty pleasure. 

Another guilty pleasure is online shopping and this was not helped at all by the news that I will have my first grandchild in July this year. The good news is that I am aware of this and am working on finding a good balance. I hope it doesn't take as long as the food and the television.  

Balancing things that are good for you and your guilty pleasures is not easy until you finally realize that it's something you need to do. Once again, mindset makes all the difference. Of course, it helps if you actually recognize the guilty pleasures as guilty pleasures. For me, the balance here is not nearly as easy as other of life's balancing acts. Sadly, when I do get my balance on, it can last for a day or a year, but I always fall off the wagon and come back to whichever one I had under control. The pull of those guilty pleasures is far more powerful than gravity itself. 

Are y'all balanced between your guilty pleasures and what's good for you?