So today some girls in the office came up to me with a furtive, gleeful suggestion–how about we do a “Shamrock Shake” run? OK, so it was at the point in the afternoon where my mental energy was starting to wane, so I thought they were saying they wanted to run the Shamrock Shuffle with me — this is the name of a race that I’m running in Chicago with Cecilia and Anna (my Yoplait buds) in 2 weeks. Then they looked at me funny, and said “NO, we want to go grab some of those yummy green mint milkshakes…you want one?”

So that is what they were saying, but what I was hearing was “do you want to have one of those forbidden goodies that you have managed to restrain yourself from ingesting for the past 10 years…and better yet, do you want one hand-delivered to you at your all-time sugar-low of the day?”

I’m fairly new to my job well so I of course did not want to disappoint my new friends by saying “no, I’m on a diet” or “no, I can’t eat those”….because a) I thought it might make them think I was judging them; and 2) I had never tasted one and I was feeling curious and in control…I bet I could have just a teeny bit.

So I was in and $2.50 later I got the smallest-size shake delivered to me (the smallest you can get is about 16 oz…criminal!). And guess what? I had 3 slurps and it was so yummy. And then, I gave it to someone else. That’s all I needed and wanted. I participated, had a fun splurge with low investment, ingested maybe 50 calories and there was no drama.

If I can continue like this I think I’ll be able to handle any real-world unplanned bad-food situation. It’s about control – my control…nothing else.