Listening.

Last year I was fortunate enough to get myself a 60-minute massage at the Saratoga Springs Spa and Resort at Walt Disney World. I love getting a massage (I prefer the deep tissue version) and it’s one of the few activities where I can completely disengage my mind and ramp my RPMs back to zero for a few minutes. It’s a wonderful feeling. I’m hoping to do it again next month during our upcoming vacation.

While getting ready for this massage, the masseuse wanted me to select which lotion or oil she should use for the treatment. She had me smell each one in a choice of four and then she had me smell each one again. She told me that my body would tell me which one it needed (not wanted) based on my attraction to each scent. The one I liked the most was the one that my body wanted the most. I think that makes sense and it turns out that it worked out just right for me, because I was able to turn everything down to zero and she massaged sandalwood scented oil deep into my skin.

Ah, heaven.

Yesterday my body was screaming for chocolate. I didn’t want sugar-free chocolate pudding, I didn’t want a chocolate protein shake or bar, I wanted chocolate, like that which is found in M&Ms, the way god intended chocolate to be.

I had several handfuls of M&Ms yesterday. Jumping on the scale this morning, I lost nearly two pounds versus yesterday.

Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.

As I passed by the M&M dish just a few moments ago, I realized that I just didn’t have the hankering for M&Ms like I did yesterday. I felt no impulse whatsoever to reach into the dish and gobble some down like a gorilla at the zoo. Today I had a hankering for a salad. So, I had some salad with a lovely dressing my husband made last night. That’s the complete opposite end of the spectrum: M&Ms vs salad. I admit that I could eat M&Ms right now but I wouldn’t enjoy them the way that I enjoyed them yesterday. Yesterday I could have eaten a salad but it wouldn’t have fulfilled anything, the way I feel fulfilled today.

I guess listening to my body and eating what I really want to eat instead of what I think I should eat might help get me through this last stretch of winter weather with my weight loss goals relatively intact. What my body is really screaming for is to ride my bike on a country road somewhere, but that’s not going to be happening for at least another month.

I guess in the meantime we’ll hope that my body maintains a yearning for the gym.