I was Ready and Willing

I got an email asking me what my diet is. As of right now my diet is kind of strict but sometimes it’s not, as you all know (the Ring Leader). Most of the time I eat a cup of special K for breakfast with a half a cup of silk (which is soy milk). Then I make myself a fruit and veggie smoothie for lunch, and a fresh greens salad with tuna and no dressing for dinner. For a snack I usually have nuts or some type of fruit. But I don’t really deprive myself of anything except for fried foods. If I have been good all week and I really want a burger, I just get a burger. Now you cannot on Monday say oh I have been good so far so I am going to get a burger. When I do decide to cheat, I still try to make a good decision while cheating. I try to satisfy my craving using the least amount of calories I can. I try my best to always check My Fitness Pal whenever we are going to eat out, so I can decide what I am going to eat before I get there based on what I am craving and the amount of calories it has. My main goal is to change my life, so if I want some ice cream I get some. I am looking toward the future, life after this diet, and I will not live the rest of my life without ice cream, burgers, and pizza. So I have to figure out now how to live my life with these foods as a part of it but just in moderation. Therefore I will not deprive myself of them now. On the other hand you should not buy a pint or a gallon of ice cream and eat the whole thing. Trust me I have been there, I use to think that a pint was one serving, like I was suppose to eat it all at one sitting. However if you still want to be able to eat whatever you want and just cut back you can eat off of a smaller plate. I have found that if you fix your food on a smaller plate you will eat less, and if you are still hungry you can go back and get more. On the contrary if you pile food on your plate you may feel compelled to finish it instead of stopping when you’re satisfied and leaving some on your plate. That leads me to another tip; always leave a spoonful or more of every food you ate at that sitting on your plate. I think that eating off of a smaller plate and leaving a spoonful of food on your plate are the first two steps to cutting back. The next thing that helped me is realizing that there is a difference between hunger and want. A lot of times we eat not because we are hungry but because we want or see something.  I don’t have a remedy for cravings except to satisfy them, in moderation of course. Pick a day of the week and a meal on that day (not the whole day) when you are going to give into a craving. Everyone knows that two of mine would be a burger and fries. However when I eat a burger I usually do not eat fries, I will get just the burger because that alone satisfies my hunger. However if I just have a craving for some fries I just order a small fry to eat with my salad. As far as wanting things that you see, I just try not to buy junk foods. Sometimes however MH will want some chips or cookies or something like that. My solution for that is just out of sight out of mind, I keep all the junk food in a cabinet all by itself therefore I have no reason to go in there because it’s nothing in there for me. The only foods I keep in sight are my nuts and fresh fruit. I think the most important thing is that I was ready to make a change and willing to make a sacrifice. So that is my advice to all of you just make sure you are ready to make a change and willing to make a sacrifice. If anyone else has any advice please comment to this post so that we can all see it.