Life is like a big
bag of crisps...

— Forrest Gump’s Momma

This piece of life advice never sat well with me.

It makes life sound like it’s just something that happens to you — that it’s out of your control, and that you have no choice in the matter. 😰 Sometimes my clients tell me they feel like an out-of-control zombie when it comes to certain indulgences such as over-eating, boozing too much, obsessing about stuff, and stalking certain people on instagram…

They essentially want to know how to overcome behavioural addictions.

I tell them that they’re not a bad person for doing these things — they’re just human. A little bit of indulgence can be an extremely enjoyable thing! It’s not my job to stop you from doing anything, or to make you feel wrong for doing stuff. No! Here at OOMPH, it’s simply my job to encourage you to do all things in the most healthiest of fashions 🤗

To that end, I give my clients what I believe is more empowering life advice than what Momma Gump had to offer:

Life is like a big bag of crisps — you know exactly what you’re gonna get.

I explain how you can overcome mild to moderate behavioural addictions and/or be moderate with your indulgences (or your life in general) using my ‘big bag of chips’ analogy (which my clients all seem to appreciate). So, I thought I would share it with you also. x

Most of us are lucky enough to be able to choose how we approach our life e.g  the food and drink that we consume, the friends we make, the significant other that we take, and the various activities that we partake in (study, work, exercise, and entertaining ourselves).

And, in most cases, if we find that the thing we initially chose no longer actively contributes to our health and wellness, we are also in a position to turn things around in order to ensure a better outcome for ourselves.

The big bag of crisps in my story represents both pleasure and pain.

Pleasure — in the sense that you’ve carefully selected a whole bagful of your favourite flavoured (and brand of) potato crisps¹ – which you’re eagerly looking forward to consuming.

And…

Pain — in the sense that if you actually eat this whole bagful of your favourite flavoured (and brand of) potato crisps in one-single-sitting, it will definitely make you feel lousy — physically, mentally, AND emotionally 😱

Let me show you one way to overcome mild to moderate behavioural addictions.

If you do succumb to tucking into another bowl of crisps after the first, you certainly won’t treat them like your first bowl because they just aren’t that special anymore.

The second serving of anything never tastes as good as the first — it only tastes okay. Particularly, if you’re now contemplating going back for a third bowl!

During your second bowl, dissatisfaction begins to kick in. When you become aware of this sensation, you should call it quits — you can still redeem yourself.

Say WHEN, and do something completely different.
You will feel much better for doing so.

But if you don’t, it just gets worse…

By the time you’re onto your third bowl of crisps you’re just going through the motions — your PLEASURE objective has gone right-out-the-window. You’re just eating them because they’re there — and because you can.

You might be eating them to fulfill another objective. You’re bored, you need comfort, or you’re hungry, or, or, or… It’s actually a lot of pressure for those poor, dissected potatoes to live up to! 😜)

In any case, at this stage, you’re absentmindedly cramming them into your mouth left-right-and-centre while you’re being distracted by watching TV, reading, or socialising. You’re not even enjoying eating them anymore.

By your fourth bowl of crisps, you might as well ditch the whole pretext and just dump the remaining contents of the bag straight down your throat! Because now you just need, well, “closure” on this big bag of crisps I guess?!