"Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human natur [sic]"-Dickens, Nicholas Nickelby
Last week the History Channel ran a series of programs on the seven deadly sins. Interesting stuff. It seems that what drove our need to control ourselves was the need to subdue our human nature and make ourselves more worthy for the next world. Taken to their extremes these sins considered anything we derived pleasure from a sinful act-- an act which made us closer to the animals and further from the divine. Some individuals sought to constrain their sense of pleasure by holding their hand over a flame if they felt aroused or sprinkling their food with ashes to diminish any enjoyment from eating.
While I do not wish to go to extremes, I do want to control my appetites, particularly my love of food so I can maintain my goal weight. However, I must confess I do not do this by punishing myself by eating foods I dislike or purposely spoiling foods flavor. Instead I replace one pleasure for another. For instance, when I crave food I think of how I'd rather look in a suit, or sweater.
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