Just This Once By Linda Stowe
“Just this once.” How many times have you said that? If you are like me, you have said it countless times. And this is where the problem lies because the just-this-once mentality can be a slippery slope. That one-time indulgence can lead to “just once more” and before you know it you have developed a bad habit before the alarm bells can even ring.
I know this because it has happened to me. This time it was those ice cream drumsticks. I should have known because they have done me in before. But the weather was so hot, and I was going through a meh time. I just needed a little something something to add spark to my life. The voices in my head sounded like a whiny toddler at the grocery checkout. So, I gave in and ordered a box of eight drumsticks, and they were better than I remembered. The cones stay crunchy, and they have chocolate in the bottom of the cone to keep the ice cream from dripping out. The manufacturer had repaired the things I didn’t like about eating drumsticks.
The next week I ordered the drumsticks again. They popped onto the screen along with the other things I have ordered in the past. Right next to the frozen broccoli, which I also ordered. By the following week, ice cream drumsticks became one of my staples right along with my weekly banana.
And then today was the first of the month, the day I weigh myself, and my scales did not fail to notice my daily drumstick habit. Time to change my ways and stop ordering drumsticks. There is an adage that says the chains of a bad habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. I don’t think I’m to the point of having to join a support group or go to drumstick detox, but I may have to avoid the frozen broccoli for a while.
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Polly here.
Just this once. This is something I absolutely cannot say. I have an addictive personality. So I know, full well, that “just this once” does not exist in my world. There isn’t just one time for me. Because, as Linda mentioned, having one leads to two, to three, to four.
I quit eating sweet things in 1980. I haven’t slipped since.
I quit doing drugs in 1987. I haven’t slipped since.
I quit smoking in 2001. I haven’t slipped since.
I quit drinking in 2005. I haven’t slipped since.
Thankfully. On all accounts.
I have to be forever vigilant with each of these things. Every day.
I’ll be honest. Sometimes, this is so hard.
But.
I keep saying “no” to “just this once” every single time.
