Oh, believe me, I have a few trigger foods that I can't have in the house. I posted recently on another thread about sour cream and onion potato chips.

Seriously, I cannot buy them, I cannot bring them in the house. I just can't.

But. On the RARE occasions that I decide I *have* to have them, I will go to the convenience store and buy one small, individual serving bag. That way I don't have a whole bag of them at home - because I will eat the whole thing.

But again, I think for me the trick is knowing that if I feel like I'm going to die if I don't have sour cream and onion potato chips, I *can* have them. I have to get off my butt and go to the corner store and get them ...but I can if I want.

I just don't make it easy! :)

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You know, you may have hit on something there. I have referred in other posts to "a switch being thrown in my brain" that caused me to do a 180 with my food choices. Maybe those "The Mercedes is yummy, but the Ford is practical - so, we'll go with the Ford" brain cells finally swarmed over the "gimmie cookie" cells. :lol:

Oh yeah, I've compared food to money many times. I have to have a monetary budget - I can't buy everything I want or I'll go broke and not be able to pay the rent. I also cant eat everything I want, if I exceed my calorie "budget" I'll gain weight. This was a pretty big "whoa" thought for me 2-3 years ago.

Excellent light bulb moment, PhotoChick, that really resonated with me. I think one reason we find that so hard to accept with food - at least I know it is for me - is because, compared to all of these other wants, it's so easy to fulfill these wants.

"Comfort food" in this part of the world is readily accessible 24/7, abundant, often cheap (especially some of the unhealthier choices) and a socially accepted indulgence that is pushed on us by a million-dollar fueled marketing juggernaut. And - once you've eaten it, it's gone. As if it's never been there in the first place, except of course for what it does to your body, incrementally. There is no clear connection of "this cookie made me this much fatter" as in "this pair of shoes made my bank account this much emptier and clogs up my shoe rack this much more." It's much more easy to live in denial with food choices than with almost any other choices.

And I would go even further to suggest that some of us might use this ease of satisfying our food cravings to compensate for frustrations of other unfulfilled wishes. I know I have.

Glory, that's a great, eye-opening way to look at it - thanks!

Excellent analysis.

You know, this just really hit home for me, in a slightly different way. If I want something we can't afford financially then it's too easy to just put it on the credit card. This is a habit I'm just now breaking and paying off my credit card debt.

I think I've been doing the same thing with food. I shouldn't have another soda/bag of chips/snack but I've been doing it anyways. Eating on credit ("I'll exercise this afternoon", "I'll cut back tomorrow"), so to speak, except it results in a mountain of weight to lose instead of a mountain of debt to pay off.

I'm changing my mindset on both things, and it's hard. Working and waiting for it, instead of the instant gratification of buying or eating on credit. But it's a change I have to make.

One of the things that is making it easier for me with food is not being so stingy on other wants in my life. It isn't so hard to have things in the house when food isn't a substitute and there's not the added pressure to consume it. I've learned that ice cream can actually go bad if you leave it in the freezer too long because you forgot to eat it. But eating it was all I could think about back when I tried to just eliminate it. The brain is weird.

I agree that things do taste better when you don't have them as much. I would not have guessed that.

So true! It really does help to replace indulging yourself with food with indulging yourself in other things.

I am also very surprised and delighted to have learned this. I mean, you always hear that, and it sounds great, but deep down you're thinking, yeah right. But it is so neat to really prefer to have treats on a treat basis - that's what makes them treats! I had mom's homemade chocolate cake a couple weeks ago for BIL's birthday. I soooooooo enjoyed. Really enjoyed it. Wanted more at the time! But I have no desire to have it every week. That's amazing to me.

One of our fellow 3FC members--I think it's Jane but I'm not sure--has the slogan in her signature line,

"If hunger isn't the problem, food is not the solution."

People often use substitutes like food, buying things, alcohol and drugs, even sex, in place of the actual solutions to problems. Sometimes the problem is simply something as minor as boredom! Other times it may be dissatisfaction with a job, a partner, the way one lives, etc. In any case, these substitutions are temporary fixes--a quick feel-good--but they aren't without a price...

Jay

I have been on some kind of diet for the last 10 years and everytime they have ended in failure and added pounds. This time has been different from the very beginning and I wasn't sure what exactly it was until I read this post. I guess until now I didn't realize it but my lightbulb has gone off also, everytime I have wanted to "cheat" I have told myself "OK, but I am only going to buy one serving of cookies, icecream, or whatever." Because of this I have stayed OP and I don't feel so guilty.

I still struggle with finding a balance between indulgence and avoidance, but my ideas of indulgence have changed quite a bit too. I "splurge" on some healthy foods, and they're both taste and wallet indulgences at time. For example, I LOVE ugli fruit, but when I can find them, they're often $2 a piece. That's alot of money for a mutant grapefruit, but if I had a choice between $2 worth of ugli fruit or $2 worth of brownies, I'd take the fruit, because a brownie is too boring and normal and an ugli fruit is exciting and unusual. The taste is great, sort of like pink lemonade, and they're so juicey and sweet. Mmmm, I want one now. I don't often buy them, because the quality is sometimes a bit iffy. You can't tell by looking if it's a good fruit, and a disappointing ugli fruit is dry and flavorless - and you've just spent $2 for nothing. Most places will refund your money if you take back the receipt and complain, but I usually lose my receipts, or forget.

So much of this for me, is learning to think very differently. Muchm ore often now, if I'm eating something that isn't on plan, it's not because I'm "indulging," but because I didn't have time for what I really wanted. I am though getting alot better at finding and keeping fast and healthy options in the house.

I agree with Glory on this-I have thought hard about what foods were okay to give up, and what I would protect like a lioness to her young to keep safe (for me that's cheese/dairy.)

I don't want to tell myself that anything is off limits, though. If I banish it from my life-it will become the one thing I crave (and most likely overeat.) I just make a better swap or portion control my choice better than I would have in the past.

I really dig the dancing broccoli! :broc::broc::broc::broc::broc:

Yup. And to be honest there *are* things I have "given up" in the sense that I haven't eaten them in over a year and I don't have any urge or desire to. But that doesn't mean I've made any conscious decision to - it's just that there are things I've decided I want more than those things.
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