I've had to tackle, over and over, the idea that I needed to follow someone else's rules. I'm well educated and well read, and I've studied scads of diet theories. Combine them all, and there's a rule for everything! Add this to ingrained perfectionism and I managed to squeeze myself into a relentless, judgmental, no-win box of diet rules and requirements. I finally just gave up, and accepted that I needed to listen to what my body was telling me and make my plan fit it, instead of trying to force my body to fit some random plan.
A corrollary of this is that I've let go of the idea that I'm a "bad" person/dieter/forum member if I don't follow someone else's rules. I keep reading, and am interested in ideas, but I no longer judge myself for not living by them. I tell myself that "my body is
my body, and I am in charge" often!
I've ditched the idea that I have to weigh and measure and count everything--
it doesn't work for me. I'm still aware of what I eat and I still write it down, but in a "medium banana" sort of way, not a "4.7 oz banana" way.
I'll eat when I'm hungry. What hungry feels like to me. I tend to want a bit of breakfast when I get up...then something about 2 hours later...then something else 2 hours later (if I've gotten up around 5, there's a lot of "every 2 hours" until lunchtime!!
)...something else at lunch...then I'm good til a light dinner. No snacks at night. I've always been flabbergasted by people asking for help with eating at night. Really? You eat at night? I've let go of the idea that dinner needs to be a big meal, and I'm far, far more comfortable front-loading my daily calories. Now dinner is a salad, or a small bowl of oatmeal, or a small dish of some sort of protein. It suits me much better.
Oddly, the idea that I had to eat measurable portions was tripping me up. One serving, or half a serving, or a serving-and-a-half, or whatever. I couldn't eat a bite or two of something and then walk away from it. Not because I had problems with the Clean Plate Club, but because I couldn't measure it! I would find myself eating all of a portion because I had measured it, and could therefore keep track of it. Even if I wasn't hungry anymore, I'd still eat it because I had parcelled it out to myself! I've told myself endlessly that it's okay to have one or two bites of something. Serving sizes are arbitrary measurements, and there's absolutely no way that anyone else knows how much food MY body needs. I sound like a broken record to myself, sometimes.
Interesting question!