Im curious to know how many people think like me. I love food, i love the idea of food and the idea of being on a diet is ...well... Not exactly what i had in mind to do for the rest of my life, but since it needs to be a lifestyle change and that means never tasting my favorite candy again..I decided to go out with a SHABANG! as in..Bring out the best dinner in the world and eat all the snack foods and dessert and anything your little heart desire's because im not gonna eat it again..i think.

Anyone else do that? Throw one last hoorah before giving it all up and chucking it out the window??

Well, I wasn't planning to start my weight loss at a set time, I just started the morning after a particularly upsetting doctor's appointment. So I didn't even think about "going out with a bang." I thought "I need to start losing this weight NOW."

If I had thought about it at the time, I might have done something similar. But knowing what I do now about how I handle food, weight loss, etc., I wouldn't. I don't consider anything off-limits; anything is fine as long as I budget it into my day or week, and even a splurge here and there is fine. There's nothing that I can't eat ever again (maybe things I won't, but nothing I can't have if I wanted it), and so there is no need to get it in one last time.

NO, this kind of all or nothing attitude is how I got fat in the first place!

If I fall off the wagon, I get back on... no "this is the last time I'll..." nonsense. Just do what you gotta do . Don't undo all your hard work before you even start!

I agree, this is the same for me. I eat everything, just in reasonable servings. Would have a cookie or two but not 20 cookies on one day.

As long as it's in my daily calorie intake it's fine with me

I was doing this earlier this year but it just lead to eating too much one day and then eating nothing the next day. Not good.

It can be hard to not have one last hurrah before you start dieting. However its always better to have consistent level of calories day in and day out. If you really want something, have it but just don't have a lot off it.
Today i am really craving these white chocolate carmel squares (uber yummy when heated up) so rather than eat the whole pack like i used to. I might just have one or half of one .

I didn't plan when I started so there was no big bang the day before here, either. And I agree that there is no "never" in my eating plan. Even while losing. The only thing I banned totally was candy at the beginning. I'm not sure why I said no candy until I lost 50 pounds, but that was my only "all or nothing" stipulation all along. And, it seems like a self defeating way to start out. It's not like we're on death row and planning our last meal!

Good luck.

Lin

I also did not plan when I started, I just all at once was like "holy cow I'm well over my personal 70kg max and I am turning 26 next week so almost 30, I need to change something NOW."

I agree with chickadee and Val - just budget stuff in and not tell yourself to never have stuff you like again. In the end your taste may change or you may think certain foods are not worth the calories that are in them so you might make different choices. But "one last time" is really not a good mentality I think because putting something so offlimits that you can't have it ever again just makes it BIGGER than it is. It starts to look like the mother of all perfect happiness foods while it isn't. And you'd learn that lesson if you don't place it as offlimits.

Like others, I didn't plan to start. I just decided one day to do something and here I am.

Nothing's off limits to me. I don't feel deprived at all. I still go out to eat (more than I should probably, I'm spending too much $$), still have sweets, and my all time favorite: pizza.

Find a way to lose weight that allows you to live Don't diet—change your life.

Well, in my case, there's no need to "go out with a bang." I guess I'm lucky enough that I can do the whole "moderation" thing, because there was NO WAY I was going to give up any of my favourite foods. I knew that for me, personally, if I told myself I could never have a particular food again, I would doom myself to failure. So I still eat all of the foods I did before; I just choose to eat certain things less often, and in smaller amounts.

Having said that, I do know that plenty of people do the whole "one last hurrah" thing before they start a lifestyle change.

I used to do that "go out with a bang" thing with an attitude of "I'll diet tomorrow." However, I have learned that this just stretches my stomach and makes me feel guilty for overeating. It also makes me crave food and be hungry the days following the "binge." Many times that "diet tomorrow" gets put off over and over and then I end up at 230 pounds, unhealthy and unhappy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I used to have a lot of "last hoorahs". The problem was that I would only stick to healthy eating for a short time, before I went off track and of course I'd need "one last hoorah" before starting again! I now realize that this is a healthy lifestyle. There isn't a single food that I'll never eat again... I just can't eat them as frequently, or in such large amounts as I once did.

I really believe that "last hoorahs" are what made me so heavy in the first place... the need to eat everything bad in sight "one more time".

I suppose I could consider this past winter like one big last hurrah, where I expanded myself almost out of my biggest clothes. But, I certainly didn't plan it that way. Actually, I'd already been consciously cutting back a bit to more like a maintenance level of food before I finally bit the bullet and decided I either needed to buy bigger clothes or start losing weight. I hate to spend money unnecessarily. I also haven't given anything up totally, I just have some things in much smaller amounts and much less often.

hmmmmmm . . .

You might want to try this thought experiment: Consider what advice you'd give a girlfriend who asked if she shouldn't kiss the entire Green Bay Packers football team this weekend before she entered the convent on Monday - "because im not gonna [kiss] again."

Perhaps less dramatic steps are possible.

Recognize that we're all different, but FWIW, it worked for me when I started my journey that I only chose modifications to my eating that I was willing to do for the rest of my life. I tend to rebel against rules, even if I made them myself. So I never really entered a 'diet' - just the "lifestyle changes", as you note. The wise person whose books inspire me, Dr. Judith Beck, has planned a small candy bar into her daily diet - she just likes to end the day with a sweet; works for her.

Good luck choosing the eating plan that works for you. Seems smart to me that you're using 3FC to find folks to talk these things over with.

I've done the "going out w/ a bang" - the problem is, the next day, I'll try to be good, and then fall off completely and put it off til the following Monday w/ another "big bang" meal - so my last "big bang" meal probably happened about 10 times until I really got serious...for that reason, I don't recommend it...

I'm waiting for the final call to start my liquid fast for WLS. There will be a list a mile long of foods I can't/won't have ever again.
You better believe I'm hitting the sushi hard one last time. After a time I can tolerate the sashimi only, but never have the rolls again. And sushi is the thing I'll miss most.