Amyleigh, very well put!! Thanks for being honest and inspirational.. and loving those brownies! :)

that is just so true.
I LOVE eating.
Seriously, i love eating. I mean I'm not an emotional eater or anything, I just love the taste of all different kinds of food.
I might not love my body as I wish, but I don't hate my body either. I hate how I couldn't love food less LOL.
I've learnt a lot through this journey as well. I learn how to eat healthier, not skipping meals and things like that.

I'm the SAME way. Sure, it sounds simple, just eat one cookie. Then I can enjoy it and savor it, but it won't do too much diet damage. Nope, that doesn't work for me. For me, a cookie experience is making a batch, eating half of it that night and the rest the next morning. A "piece of cake" is not a small 3-bite morsel, it's a quarter of the pan. Even things with pizza, I don't want just one piece, I want half the pizza. This has not changed even after losing the weight and changing my lifestyle.

I have to give myself one cheat day per month. And this is WILDLY against most peoples' philosophies. But, I've lost 50+ lbs, I'm maintaining easily, and feel no need to deviate from my lifestyle. This absolutely would not work for many, perhaps most, people...but it works for me.

I plan one day per month. If there's a birthday or wedding or other event, then I'll schedule my monthly cheat day on that. If not, I'll just pick a good day, usually on a weekend. It must be planned for, not just "mmm, I want some yum yums, today will be my cheat day." I throw caution entirely to the wind on that one day. No calorie counting, no looking at labels, I don't even try too hard to make the right decisions or keeping things in moderation. It's not one meal, it's a whole day. I just eat whatever I want. If I want a candy bar, I eat it. If I want a bunch of cookies, I'll eat a bunch of cookies. If I want Chinese buffet, I get Chinese buffet and usually make two or three trips through the line, lol.

This has worked for me because I find it easy to jump back on plan. Other than maybe a tummy ache the next day, I don't have any wild cravings or anything. I have my pig out cheat day, get back on plan the next day, and wait for next month. When I was still losing, I always lost in the exact same pattern after my cheat days, they never really affected it. Now that I'm maintaining, they haven't affected that either.

Anyways, like I said, this certainly wouldn't work for everyone. It works for me because it keeps me sane knowing that I have one day to eat whatever I want, so I don't need to hoover any cookie I walk by, it can wait. I also have the ability to get back on plan after my cheat days. The "enjoy a tiny bit in moderation" thing doesn't work for me...in fact, it drives me insane.

LOVE IT!!!!! I definitely have not taken any of my fav foods away.....I have always, still do, and will always love pasta, rice, baked potatos, cookies, brownies, and ice cream. The only difference now is that instead of eating them all day everyday...I try to limit those carbs to one meal and a reasonable serving not the double or triple serving i used to have and I always throw something "healthy" with it to balance it out like a side of veggies or fruit cup...and for the desserts I have them one to two times a week and I must say they taste THAT MUCH BETTER when you allow space between each time....its like its being very well appreciated!!!

Thank you for this thread!

I love this post so much :)

Bump. I LOVE this. Love love love.

I still love food, and my journey has taught me about different foods that I now love just as much as the old foods.
:D

I love this post seriously! I know I'm on a lifestyle change but **** I still enjoy Pizza, Pasta, Cakes, Ice cream and the other crap I used to eat all the time, the only difference is I learned how to do it in moterations and not over stuff myself. :)

Great thread!

I really think you've cracked the weight loss puzzle when you know how to allow yourself to eat anything you want. Normally what you actually want is quite healthy, and even if it isn't then if you only eat when you're actually hungry, it won't do that much damage.

It is the eating when I am hungry, and not bored, that is the hard bit for me. When I restrict things, I just ending up wanting them more. I went through a phase on South Beach of craving rice. I hate rice normally. I just wanted it because I couldn't have it.

Here's to loving food, exercising moderation and not obsessing about everything too much!

I truly believe in cheat days for sanity and I agree with you 100%; so long as 29/30 days of the month you are on plan and sticking to your 3-5 days of exercise per week, ONE day of 3000+ calories will not kill you or destroy your progress. Two, three, or four cheat days... well... that's a totally different story.

I love this thread! It doesn't matter what size you are. If you don't love yourself now, you won't love yourself 5, 10, 20, or (in my case) 70lbs from now.

Love to eat
 

It's funny, I was just thinking about how much I love to eat too---and how eating less has actually enhanced my ability to taste food better.

I try to allow myself a jolly rancher or a cute little chocolate mochi ice cream cake here and there during my diets, it helps, after a long day of work, to know that I have a nice little chocolate ice cream cake waiting for me. :)

Not all the food we eat has to be great for us. But it is a good idea, in my opinion, to make sure that 90% of the food you eat in a day is good for you.

Last night, I tried to resist my temptation to eat a little ice cream cake, even though it was in my caloric intake. I ate it, it was a hard day, and I ate it good. LOL

When I got on the scale today, it didn't disrupt my weight loss efforts at all.

It's when you eat a whole bag of something, or you are way too over indulgent that it's too much.

But as I eat less, I have started to see how much better everything tastes, and how much more love I put into everything I eat.

It's wonderful!

I love food and I will always love food. My first sentence as a baby was "More ham."

However, changing my habits and cooking for myself more at home has brought to my attention that there are too many amazing things to eat to justify blowing 2 days' worth of calories on French fries and Klondike bars. I won't say I've become some sort of gourmand because that's not true at all, but nowadays if I go out to eat at an American restaurant I'm jonesing for salmon, not fettucine Alfredo.

Thanks for this post! I'm so glad there's a thread where we can just call it like it is. Food isn't the enemy. Food is awesome! The key is moderation and exercise.

When I tell people I'm trying to lose weight, I always get the "But you look great!" response. Thanks, but I'm not worried about whether I look attractive. I'm confident enough in that department. I just want to be healthy! I don't want to die young of weight-related problems. I want to be able to run in case of emergencies. I want to be able to engage in sports and fitness activities without embarrassment. I want to be able to fit into trendy clothes without worrying whether they will flatter (hide my fat). I want to muster up the courage to wear a two-piece in public. The list goes on.

I've always been overweight, which is funny because my mom is a dietitian and fed us really healthy. I think it was our downfall (both my younger brother and sister were overweight and are now at healthy weights). Whenever we had a chance to get unhealthy food, we'd eat it, and we'd eat tons of it. We'd bring it home and hide it from my mom. I know now it's better for me to incorporate treats into my calorie count or I will go wild and eat anything remotely unhealthy I can find.

Yeah, I didn't take out everything I loved. I also love to eat, very much. Food and I have a vast love affair. Most days, even just eating regular old low cal stuff, I still make it taste great so I don't feel deprived. My food should taste good-because I want to love eating it. I just had to figure out that literally giving my life for the love of food was not doing me any good. If I'm not alive to see 80, how can I make my grandkids great healthy but delicious meals, and how can I enjoy them myself?