What My Brother Told Me

November 01, 2009 ↓ Comments (0)

My brother and I were talking on the telephone recently. We ended up talking about sweets and smoking. He quit smoking and said he did it just like that. (It’s true, he decided to quit and he just did.) He said he’s had a puff off three cigarettes since he quit several years ago. He could name the times.

A friend of his found out he quit and she asked him how he did it.

“Well, it’s pretty simple,” he told her, “Just stop smoking!”

She retorted, “That’s it? There has to be more to it than that.”

He said it was that simple. She didn’t believe him and so he asked her if she likes money. She said she did. He asked if she could use more money. She said she could. He asked her why she doesn’t go and rob a bank.

“That’s crazy,” she said.

It’s true. It would be crazy for her to go and rob a bank. But still he asked her why she didn’t go and do it anyway.

“It’s against the law, and it’s wrong,” she said.

But that wasn’t his point. His point was that she didn’t go and rob a bank not because it’s wrong, but because she is in control of her own life. She has the ability to choose not to rob the bank.

She is in control.

In the same way, you choose to eat or not to eat sweets. You make the choice.

There is a difference between a sugar addict and a heroine addict. I highly doubt a sugar addict would break into a house and steal jewelry from someone’s dresser drawer to sell for money to buy cookies. First of all, cookies can be purchased nearly anywhere for pocket change and your family and friends will usually smile through supplying you with a sugar fix. Sugar is everywhere and it’s cheap.

So if sugar doesn’t make you go buy it and eat it, what does?

YOU. You make the choice.

“Of course you might use some nicotine gum and you’ll probably snack more during the first few weeks,” my brother added.

My point in telling you this is that the first thing you must do is decide you want to stop being sweet and then you have to make it happen. To “get off sugar” is like deciding you want to earn more money. After the decision is made you have to take action and start to figure out how you’re going to do it. Then it takes time and effort. You can stop eating sweets on your own—right now—if you’re ready. But then reality kicks in; avoiding sugar is a choice that has to be made by you over and over and over again.