Advice from a Bedwetter

Book cover "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee"

I recently received some advice from an unlikely source…a bedwetter.

Well, more specifically, I read said advice.

This past May, I sped through the new memoir from comedian (and fellow Granite Stater) Sarah Silverman. She called it The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee. It was short, funny and incredibly smart (while at the same time incredibly ridiculous). It not only details her life in comedy, but also growing up as a bedwetter. She had a medical condition where her bladder was undersized and she wet her bed well into her teens.

Yet, she wrote one passage about a nugget of wisdom she received from a wise friend: Make it a treat.
Today, Sarah applies this directly to her comedy: don’t overdo a joke otherwise it will grow old quickly.

This idea of saving special things for special occasions is not revolutionary or even that new, but it fits so completely with my (not new) plans for self-revitalization. I always tell myself “I’m going to get fit and eat healthy” but these ideas never stick.

I have a love/hate relationship with sweets. I always have and always will. I love sugar in many forms, and often have time saying no or even stopping at just one. Even today I downed more than one (three) small (ish) conga bars from a lunch meeting. I always feel guilty afterward but yet that guilt never seems to stop me from helping myself to more at a later date.

I try to limit myself to a sweet or two a week, and try to substitute with healthier treats like low sugar fruit popsicles (which are actually so delicious) or even some (regularly low-fat) bite-sized macaroons. No avail. Sweets and junk food are everywhere, and I can’t always resist.

So my new motto and mantra is Make it a treat. If I can continue to remind myself of this, I’m hoping I can convince my brain to stop craving sugar so much, and when I do indulge, to stop. It won’t be an easy task, but one that is necessary. I haven’t been as active as I need to be, and it’s showing. Better choices are going to benefit me now and for the rest of my life. I need to make these changes now while I am still very able.

Make it a treat. It can be applied to anyone or anything.

What is the vice in your life that you could make a treat?

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