Today, I think we all should talk about bubble wrap.

I discovered this concept a couple of years ago when my sister was going through a tough divorce. It was painful for the whole family. I remember thinking, she is so fragile right now. . .I wish I could wrap her in bubble wrap before she left the house each day to protect her from peoples opinions and the constant judgments spewing from every angle. The littlest action or word could break her.

Now that she doesn’t need her bubble wrap anymore, I realized something. . . maybe I need it?

Let’s take that one step further, maybe we all need it?  Why? Because we are so darn fragile around food.

It would have been nice if I was wrapped in it last Saturday at my girlfriend’s baby shower. Before arriving at the shower, I had all intentions to eat light; I had dinner plans that night. But when I got there, it was the cutest little tea party theme I had ever seen! The next thing you know I’m Alice in freaking wonderland totally taking in every aspect of this Tea Party and every calorie. The farthest thing from my mind was the intentions I set before I arrived. It started with a mimosa, they were pear mimosas, sure I’ll have one or 5. Then they served what I thought was the main course, salad and an egg omelet. Ok . . .I’m still not in the red. BUT THEN… the second course appeared, 2 big scones PER PERSON, um amazing. Like I said, I’m at a tea party , drinking mimosas, i mean, i need the scone, actually I need both scones.Then came the third course…little tea sandwiches….adorable! Naturally I try one of each; now I’m in the red for sure and then proceeded to make my way into the black zone with the crumb cake & adorable cookie favors. So much for eating light!! That adorable tea party broke me. I ate crappy at dinner too and felt blah when I woke up. Naturally bloated & upset with myself for so quickly forgetting how I intended to eat light.

How does this happen? What happens to us in between the ‘I’m going to eat light’ and the ‘eating everything at the party’? This is why we need the bubble wrap. We are fragile in these moments, we forget who we are & what foods means. We forget to savor the moment, literally. And that can be frustrating because we are put in those situations constantly. Food comes at us from every direction all day long.

My baby shower story was specific but these situations arise all the time:

• A co-worker brings in cupcakes for his/her birthday
• You accept an invitation to a last minute happy hour
• Your friends all want to eat Mexican and order chips and Guac to start
• You’re too tired to cook after work so you order takeout
• You are obligated to go to a work dinner & everyone orders pasta
• You pass a dunkin donuts with that brownie batter donut in the window

No matter how prepared we feel or how badly we want to lose those few pounds, when situations like this hit us, they can break us and send us into that place of self loathing & hatred for not having more self control. But how can you have self control when these temptations come at us with no warning??

So since bubble wrap is just an analogy what are we to do? How can we not feel so frustrated when the world is trying to trip us up in our greatest efforts to be the best version of ourselves?

Try to be present in every situation. And realize sometimes it’s easy to forget what the food means & why it’s being put in front of us. But post mortem those moments & reflect on a couple of the emotions you were feeling that day, it could be a reason you ate more than you intended…awareness is better than any diet!