What's Your "Chip"? Identifying Your Emotional Crutches

Have you ever found yourself reaching for that bag of chips at midnight, binging that show you know isn't good for you, or calling that friend who always brings drama? These seemingly innocent comforts might be signaling something much deeper.

Today, I'm getting personal about my decades-long relationship with potato chips. What began as cherished Friday night traditions with my mother—mixing various chip varieties in a brown paper bag while watching movies—evolved into an unconscious coping mechanism that followed me well into adulthood. The revelation hit when I caught myself sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night, trying to quietly open a bag without waking my family. That moment of clarity showed me this wasn't just about food; it was about emotional escape.

We all have our version of "chips"—those comfort patterns that disguise themselves as harmless when they're actually harmful. These habits don't help us address what's happening in our hearts and minds; they merely provide temporary relief while potentially damaging our physical, mental, and spiritual health. As John C. Maxwell wisely noted, "You will never change your life until you change something you do daily." The challenge lies in honest identification: What is your emotional crutch? Is it food? Social media? Shopping? Toxic relationships? Whatever it is, recognizing these patterns is the first step toward breaking destructive cycles.

This week, I challenge you to identify your personal "chips"—that thing you regress to when life gets difficult—and consider what need it's truly fulfilling. Then take one small step toward replacing it with something healthier. True transformation isn't just about removing a bad habit; it's about understanding what led to its formation and addressing the root cause. Your journey to freedom starts with recognition and replacement. What will you choose to change?

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Show Updates
• 1:07 Childhood Memories and Chip Traditions
• 3:22 Recognizing Destructive Comfort Patterns
• 5:13 The Disguise of Harmless Habits
• 7:20 Identifying Your Personal "Chips"
• 8:38 Challenge to Replace Unhealthy Comforts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

I Welcome back to the Call Me Mr U and the Inspiration Station. Thanks again for listening to the show. In case you guys were not aware hopefully you are caught up to it by now we have individualized all of our shows on every listening platform, so now you can find each individual show wherever you listen to your podcast. You can comment on those. Follow us, leave us a review. Hopefully it's five star, hopefully it's five star. But thank you again for following us and for listening to the call me, mr you and the Inspiration Station. We really appreciate this. What my goal is today is to hopefully encourage you about unhealthy habits and toxic patterns that we've carried for years and help us destroy some destructive cycles. I'm going to try to do that in less than 10 minutes, so we'll see what happens. But that's the goal. But I've shared the story a few times, but it's really been a revelation for me personally because I've learned something about me. That man I had when I was a little kid I'm talking about in the heart of the ghetto mom worked hard, two jobs and going to school for the majority of the time. That lives in the house. So I saw the work ethic and it was incredible and one of the things that we would do as a break on a Friday nightiday night I would. I would run to the bodega, over the tony's bodega, and I would get. I guess those shifts used to cost 25 cent. I'm not sure if you guys remember those, but they were 25 cent. They had like dipsy doodles and cheese doodles and plain chips and barbecue chips, all kind of pretzels, all kind of stuff. Maybe 25 cent I would get like about two2 worth, I guess, by eight bags, something like that, and I would bring them all back to the house and we'd get a big brown paper bag Well, not big but medium A brown paper bag and we'll put all of the snacks inside and we'll shake them all up Popcorn, pretzels, cheese doodles, corn chips, all that stuff. And then we'll sit and watch TV or watch a movie. And that was our Friday night tradition and honestly I don't know what happened before that, but since then I developed a serious love for chips.

Speaker 1: 3:00

They became almost a comfort food for me. If I was watching a wrestling pay-per-view, I had some kind of chip. If I was watching a sporting event like the NFL NFL football watching my Giants play I would have some kind of chip. If I was watching a movie that was two, three hours long, my wife and I sitting together, we had some kind of chips. If we go on a road trip, one of the things that we made sure we had in the car was some kind of chip to snack on. It became a comfort food.

Speaker 1: 3:24

I didn't even realize that it was an unhealthy habit, not because the chips were bad yeah, they were, but not because of that only, but just because of when I found myself eating them, when I found myself leaning into that need, that habit, that pattern. And after some evaluation, some healing took place in my life. I was able to look back and see that my wife, my mom and I, what we were doing, what my wife and I have even done past that point recently, was that we were using that as a way of comfort to help ease whatever we were dealing with in our hearts and in our minds about life. Whatever we were dealing with in our hearts and in our minds about life, the snacks, the chips, were a comfort, an escape Temporary, but still an escape from the things that were going on in life. I don't know how you can be saved or delivered by a potato chip? I don't think you can. But the point there is that it was a destructive cycle. We didn't realize how and why it even started. I did find out later on in life. More recently, even up to this year, I realized why I was leaning on those chips for comfort, what I was being comforted from and what I needed to deal with.

Speaker 1: 4:41

So those are just an example. I mean when people talk about how you know it's cool to have sex, it's cool to kind of have a cheat day, but cheat weeks and cheat months and cheat years are not a real thing. And cheat years are not a real thing. And a lot of times the idea of junk food. It applies to our daily choices, our diet. But there's also something behind that People talk about they're emotional eaters. Think about what that means, because people who are emotional eaters most times they're not really small people, just to be honest, they got a little weight on them and because we all deal with emotional stuff. But how we deal with it can impact the way that we look, how we feel, how we function and how healthy we actually are.

Speaker 1: 5:30

I've gotten away from the chips and I don't even touch them anymore, which is a testament to who God is. It's not because I'm smart them anymore, we just detest them into who God is. It's not because I'm smart, but those comfort patterns just disguise themselves as being helpful when they're really harmless. Disguise themselves, excuse me, as being harmless, but they're really harmful. They disguise themselves as being harmless but they're really harmful to us because they don't help us. They don't help us address what's going on in our hearts and in our minds and in our spirits and on top of that, they're not good for our bodies, especially with what you see in some of the chips nowadays.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Turn the pack around and read it, man. You'd be surprised. How many things in the ingredients section can you actually pronounce? And you know what it means. John C Maxwell had a fantastic quote. He said you will never change your life until you change something you do daily. I got to be honest In my mind with all that was going on, with all the things that I had that we would call habits and patterns.

Speaker 1: 6:35

I thought chips was the least of my issues. I didn't think that was that big of a deal. I didn't think that I was in real trouble Until I would go downstairs at 12, 1 o'clock in the morning to get me some chips. I'm like, dude, you're a robber and you're in your own house Sneaking downstairs to get you some chips and trying to eat them quietly. That's when I knew I had a problem.

Speaker 1: 7:00

And I don't know if chips is your thing, but perhaps you have a thing that's not potato chips, but it's something like that, something that you have allowed to be a comfort for you, a couch for you to sit on when you have rough times. What is that that you lean on? What is that that you give into and you regress into? Is it junk food? Is it something that's sweet like chocolate? Is it a certain TV show that maybe you probably shouldn't be watching? Is it a certain movie? Is it a video? Is it a person in your life that may not be good for you, but you regress back to that because they're comfortable. You've known them for a while. They've been friends for years. You went through high school together, but they may not be necessarily good for you in life and where you are right now.

Speaker 1: 7:56

If it's not chips, it's something that we have in life that we regress to and it steals our energy, it steals our spiritual health, and we allow it to be there. We can't even blame it. We invited it in. So I just encourage you. Whether it's junk food or whether it's a habit that you have in your life right now, I just want to encourage you. Identify it, what is it? And replace it with a healthier alternative. Not just food. It might actually be people and things. Do it this week. Love you guys.