No Willpower

I don't have a lot of weaknesses but I readily admit that I lack willpower; That's why I'm overweight and have too much yarn.  However, I believe one of the keys to life is knowing which battles to fight and which battles to leave be.  Below are two personal battles I've learned to leave be:

Useless battle #1:  Yarn Diets


Yeah, for me this is a useless battle.  First of all, KnitPicks sends such pretty catalogs that it really doesn't make sense for me to try to stay on a Yarn diet.  Second, I'm on Ravelry.  Ravelry is no friend to dieters.  Third,  I have this bad habit of reading knitting blogs and seeing lovely finished items using covet-able yarns.  Yeah, no yarn diets for me.

Since I don't believe in Yarn Diets, I studiously save for my yarn shopping sprees.  I setup a separate account in ING Direct for my yarn and every two weeks I put a little bit more money in the account.  That way, when I go crazy, I feel better knowing that I have the money already set aside for this.  Yeah. . .my yarn has a line item in my budget but groceries doesn't.  That falls under "Home".

Unfortunately for my willpower, Elann sent a message saying that they would have Noro Sock yarn for $11.38, limited colorways, but ...come ON!  It's Noro!  I used to hate this sock yarn, but once I made a pair and they felted to my feet, I fell in love.  I had to jump on that.  So, I checked out the yarn, decided on the colorways I wanted, and waited for the sale to open....

It took less than 8 hours for Elann to sell out of every colorway except 2!  I know that knitters are a rapacious bunch, but my god, 8 hours?!?!?!  So, I put two lonely skeins in my cart, then decided that buying two skeins was a waste of the US Postal Service's time, so I added a few more skeins until I had nearly $50. No use buying what I didn't have a plan for.

On a lark, I decided to check the ING bank balance to see how much damage I was doing....I should not have done that.  I had barely had spent about 10% of what was in there.  So over to KnitPicks I go.

By 11:59PM on Tuesday night, I spent $190 on yarn....and I don't feel the slightest bit of guilt.  I love that feeling.



Useless Battle #2:  Food Diets

Look, let's get this straight:  I have no intention of being overweight all my life.  However, living in New York right now is not doing anything to help me lose weight.  I am living across from Lincoln Center, so there is a plethora of amazing dining establishments all around me.  I don't fight the feeling; I go to dinner.  So, I feel pretty good about the fact that I've only gained 10 pounds. . .umm, OK 30 lbs, but 20 of that was the constantly fluctuating pounds that it took me 6 months to lose and only one dinner to regain.  So as far as I'm concerned, I've gained 10 pounds.

So why is this a losing battle?  Well, I'm a traveling consultant.  I live in restaurants.  I don't have access to a kitchen when I stay in Lincoln Center, so I enjoy the takeout options available.  Now, what I do feel guilty about is the fact that I won't go to the perfect adequate gym downstairs.