How many years of my life is the junk food worth?

I've been asking myself this a lot lately. . . every time I am tempted to allow myself a junk food binge.

I'm not talking a cookie here and there. I'm talking half a dozen or more cookies. Or whatever.

Most of the time I eat healthy. I have NEVER slacked on exercise. I just do it and don't let myself NOT do it. (At least not in the 3+ years since I started taking care of my health.)

But. . . sometimes I just want to binge. Which is a big reason why I haven't lost any weight in a very long time.

On my favorite Spanish soap opera, one of the characters is an old man--well, maybe 60--who weighs about 400 lbs. He's diabetic but won't take his insulin or control his eating. So many good things have happened to him: he married his soulmate, reconciled with the adult children he abandoned years ago, and their lives seem to be headed in the right direction. (Well, the show is coming to an end, so all of the plot lines are being resolved.)

In the episode I watched today (recorded), he is at a big family party and giving a toast to his family and friends and seems so joyful.

However, he refuses to follow the doctor's instructions and I see in tomorrow's episode that he dies. No big surprise there. He's been asking for it.

So I ask myself when I feel like bingeing: how much of my life is it worth to feel good for 15 minutes? Because that's what it comes down to in the end.

I know it's not worth it. But it's not always that easy to remember that in a stressful moment.