Dear Brooke
I have been listening to a recent coaching call and it prompted some thinking. A lady asked whether you consider prescription medication “buffering” and you said not if there is no net negative consequence. So then I got pondering on my drinking. I really can’t identify any negative emotion I drink to buffer these days. I drink because I really want it. That’s the thought: “I really want it, I enjoy it a lot”. Then I thought, is there a net negative consequence, and the only one is “not losing weight”. And then I thought about how that is not enough of a net negative consequence all the time to make me want to stop drinking. My thoughts are: yes, I would like to be a few pounds lighter…..but I get as much pleasure from a glass or two of wine as I do from being thin.” Being thin – getting into skinny clothes – provides me with about as much pleasure as having a glass or two of wine. Both pleasures are, for me, kind of fleeting. “Yes, I am wearing a size six” lasts about ten minutes into my day, then I get caught up in my life which is busy and meaningful way beyond what size jeans I wear. I’m not a size six these days, cos I am liking having a couple of glasses of wine at the weekends and eating what I want. So, I think my question is, what do I do if the “net negative consequences” of both options – drinking and not being skinny vs not drinking and being skinny – sort of equal out? Some days I want one, some days I want the other.

I don’t drink to manage my emotions. I drink because I really like it. I don’t eat to manage my emotions. I eat because food is pleasurable to me. Many other things in my life are also pleasurable to me, food is just one of many things that give my life colour and joy. So, is there a problem?? I don’t know what to think. Some days I think I should be thinner, some days I think I should just be happy as I am. Some days I think why on earth do we judge thin as good, and then I resent how brainwashed I have been by society and culture telling me that wearing a size six makes me a more valuable human being. Other days I resent that the alcohol business has probably brain washed me too!

Do you have any advice for me and my “first world problems”?? 😉