Broken cookies don’t count?
If you have spent a lifetime dieting, as many of us female humans have, you’ve probably heard someone say, “Broken cookies don’t count.” As an avid cookie baker and dieter, I know I’ve said it many, many times. It means that if the cookie is broken it doesn’t count as cheating on your diet. It doesn’t have calories. They’ve leaked out, or flew away, or something, when the cookie broke. It’s a silly thing to say, and we obviously don’t really believe it. Or do we? It is a rationalization, or something that we tell ourselves to feel better about making a choice that is illogical or unacceptable.
Broken cookies are certainly not the only thing we lie to ourselves about. Throughout any given day we rationalize a great number of our actions and words. It is a built-in defense mechanism meant to guard us from hits to our psyche from all manner of different negative emotions. We don’t do it consciously, but we do continue many of these rationalizations long past the time at which we come to understand they are not true.
We all do it. It’s quite natural and it has it’s benefits for sure. However, some of us are much better at believing those rationalizations than others and, while it may be of benefit to the short term emotional state of those individuals, I happen to believe it is in direct opposition to an individuals long term self actualization and growth as a person.
I believe that to realize our best selves we must be self aware and have the ability to question these “stories” we tell ourselves to make us feel good about our actions. If we can question why we do what we do, especially when it doesn’t line up with the values we believe ourselves to hold, then we can dig deeper and change our behavior or accept it, from an honest, well thought-out place.
So, why call this website Broken Cookies Don’t Count? I want it to remind you to question all the silly little things you tell yourself to get through the day, as well as the big, seemingly important systems of beliefs you’ve built in order to justify your behaviors throughout life. Are they rationalizations, or are they truth? Are they serving you well, or holding you back? Maybe you’ll realize that the only person in the way of being exactly who you want to be is you, and the stories you tell yourself. Maybe you’ll just realize how ridiculous it is to believe something like “broken cookies don’t count” and you’ll have a good laugh and then you’ll either continue to say it, just for fun, or, you’ll get real with yourself and move on. Either way, you’ll KNOW yourself better, and therefore BE a better YOU.
Broken Cookies Don't Count 