Sometimes, I feel woozy in the morning. It might be a lack of sleep, water, or my metabolism not kicking in. Whatever the original reason, a little bit of sugar often helps, especially considering I usually don’t eat breakfast.
Today was one of those days. When I felt my head get dizzy, I got up, made some tea, and took a cookie from a box. But what’s better than one cookie? Two cookies, of course! I was about to put a second on my little espresso plate, but then I paused for a second.
For some reason, I simulated a little further ahead than usual. Instead of just focusing on how good it would feel to bite into that first cookie, I actually thought about the second one. And you know what? In my head, it didn’t taste as nice. It just wasn’t necessary. Even imagining it, it felt like too much. So I put it back, waited for my tea to steep, and stuck with one cookie. It was exactly what I needed. Not more, not less.
Maybe overeating happens not because we estimate we’re hungrier than we actually are, nor because we’re weaklings who can’t resist the smell of a delicious dish in front of us. Maybe it often happens simply because we overestimate the joy we’ll gain from eating more than we had planned—and once the portion is on our plate, all we’re doing is sticking to an already-signed-off plan.
Me, I was projecting the excitement of getting out of my woozy state on one more cookie than I needed to get there. If I had taken the second one, I undoubtedly would have eaten it. It was readjusting the plan before committing to it that made the difference.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the occasional extra cookie. But when you’re woozy, un-wooze yourself first. Then decide with your brains intact. And to do that, one cookie just might beat two.
