The title of this post is the tagline of a Lay’s Potato Chip ad. It’s a pretty neat summation of the food industry’s approach to selling processed foods. And since I’m in an oppositional mood lately and walking headlong into old fears, when this phrase popped into my head, instead of ignoring or suppressing it I thought a much better thing to do would be to turn it around, as Byron Katie says.

I bet I can eat just one. And I can. But it still takes a lot of mindful work to do it.

I’m struck by the fact that even now, after all these years and all this mindfulness practice, at times it’s still difficult to eat slowly, to eat just one of something sweet, or pause before I eat anything. And while the focus for years was on changing behavior, now I bring more attention to cultivating kindness and self-compassion–and I can see that more kindness allows change to happen.

Now, I’m more able to be kind to myself when I struggle with pausing, or slowing down–and still be kind when I slip and don’t.

Kindness in our relationship with food creates change.