{"id":5541,"date":"2020-11-21T16:28:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T21:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laholmberg.com\/?p=5541"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:22:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:22:35","slug":"when-a-cookie-is-more-than-a-cookie-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laholmberg.com\/?p=5541","title":{"rendered":"When a cookie is more than a cookie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A cookie becomes more than a cookie when you decide it is more than a cookie, as with anything <\/strong>that you decide is more than what it actually<\/em> is. You make it so by believing it is so. This favorite John Green quote sums it up beautifully: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A cookie is a cookie- food. Money is money- legal tender for making purchases. A person is a person- a human being who will behave in a human manner (mostly) and is incapable of perfection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see where we’re going here- it’s not really the thing <\/em>that’s the issue, but your belief<\/em> about the thing. This rule holds true for every<\/em> area in your life, but if you can grasp it in relation to food, a door of recognition will be opened to you and you will become aware of other areas in your life that are affected by the belief that a thing is more than a thing<\/strong> <\/em>and you will be able to view the situation through new eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overcoming a belief is not an effortless task. Most of us have said at one time or another:\u00a0“I can’t stop myself at one cookie- I lose control and eat several.”\u00a0<\/em>and we truly believe it. I am using cookies as an example, but substitute your own particular poison. The food or “thing” matters not, it’s the belief<\/em> that needs to be re-routed. So what’s the solution?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s where things get sticky… there is no ONE <\/strong>solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the bright side, there are an infinite amount of\u00a0possible\u00a0<\/em>solutions, but only you<\/strong> can find\u00a0your\u00a0<\/em>solution.\u00a0If there is one hard and fast rule of thumb I’ve learned on our\u00a0neurodiversity journey\u00a0it is that there is no\u00a0ONE SIZE FITS ALL FORMULA\u00a0<\/em>for everybody for anything<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the broad <\/strong>solution will come as no surprise to you: you have to<\/strong> change your thinking<\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\u00a0I told you in an earlier post, thinking in pictures helps me. Picture a sled. I make mine red so that it stands out in my mind. <\/em>Every time you have a recurring thought, such as the one about not being able to eat just one cookie, it’s like that sled making a path <\/em>in the snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more you ride your sled down the path, the more ingrained the path gets and the more difficult it becomes for your sled to veer outside the path<\/em>. This is a rough idea of how neural pathways work in your brain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time you get on your sled, if you don’t make an effort to forge<\/strong> a new path by thinking a new thought<\/strong><\/em>, your sled defaults to the well-worn path without<\/em> you even steering it there. Getting on a new path requires consciously steering your sled <\/em><\/strong>off<\/strong><\/em> the old path and onto a new one by ingraining a new thought<\/strong>. What the new thought should be truly depends on the reasons why you feel a food controls you, so your new thought will have to be in contrast<\/strong> to that reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"pbblossom
Damn, these are good cookies!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let’s take my own personal experience with peanut butter blossoms. I went through a phase one holiday season many years back where I ate more peanut butter blossoms than you can imagine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first I panicked, felt guilty, worried about gaining weight and attempted to avoid them, which only made me eat more of them. Realizing that my old bulimic habits had come home to roost (old patterns are often lying dormant rather than dead) <\/em>I grounded<\/strong> myself with the reminder that I only believe food controls me when I fear I can’t have <\/em>something. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That<\/strong> was it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From that moment on, I rerouted my sled on a thought path that said, “Lisa, you can have as many of those cookies as you want. There are plenty today and there will be plenty tomorrow. Eat them and enjoy them.” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For about a week, I baked those cookies first thing in the morning before work and I ate them with breakfast and lunch. I came home and made a fresh batch and I ate them with dinner. I ate them and I enjoyed them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then one day I woke up and thought, “I’m done with those cookies.” <\/em>I had ingrained in my brain that though I could have <\/em>the cookies, I was choosing not to have <\/em>the cookies. Not because I couldn’t<\/em>, but because I was choosing <\/em>not to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I <\/strong>had the power to do that. So do you<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have baked those cookies every Christmas since and rarely do I want more than one or two of them at a time. But when I do, I have them without berating myself<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later when I would decide to gain clarity as to my reliance on and relationship with alcohol by abstaining from it for an extended period, it was this earlier cookie<\/em> lesson and the many others that would follow (rarely are messages or lessons stand-alone<\/em>, as each serves as a piece connecting you to the next piece<\/a><\/em>) that prepared me for the realization that I was in control of my choices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is by no means to say that making<\/em> the choices that serve you best is easy,<\/strong>\u00a0especially when it comes to addictive behaviors. Sometimes you have to accept that you may be making the difficult choices on a second-by-second basis. We are talking head-between-the-knees-deep-breathing-Almighty Universe-get-me-past-this-moment <\/em>days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cookie is a cookie, a person is a person, and a beer is a beer. But you<\/strong> are a spiritual being who has strength and capacity beyond<\/strong> what you even comprehend is possible to face any challenge or consequence that is thrown in your path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have<\/strong> it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You just may not know <\/em>it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only way to know it is to operate in faith that it’s there when you’re not sure that it is. It will then be revealed to you in pieces. And you won’t know where this piece fits and why that piece had to be so difficult and when the next piece will show up, and you will become frustrated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just often enough a corner will come together and you’ll be shown a bit of the bigger picture. And though you can’t fully comprehend what it means, you have a sense that it’s well worth the journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cookie becomes more than a cookie when you decide it is more than a cookie, as with anything that you decide is more than what it actually is. You make it so by believing it is so. This favorite John Green quote sums it up beautifully: A cookie is a cookie- food. Money is money- legal tender for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111895055,"featured_media":3480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[91],"tags":[12523,207940,18645,9227,401,789572023,586,337,4325,2885,1677,4909,2303,15433],"class_list":["post-5541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","tag-addiction","tag-bulimia","tag-cookies","tag-diet","tag-faith","tag-fitness","tag-food","tag-health","tag-holidays","tag-motivation","tag-nutrition","tag-psychology","tag-weight-loss","tag-wellness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/laholmberg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/pbblossom-1.jpg?fit=259%2C194&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p81q0n-1rn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3744,"url":"https:\/\/laholmberg.com\/?p=3744","url_meta":{"origin":5541,"position":0},"title":"What if your no was a yes?","author":"LA Holmberg","date":"","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"What you resist, persists.\" -Carl Jung Or as Eckhart Tolle adds to this\u00a0Jung\u00a0quote:\u00a0\u00a0\"Whatever you fight, you strengthen and what you resist, persists.\" Why? 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