When you hear the word "diet" you automatically start thinking of deprivation and lots and lots of lettuce. Visions of deprivation. Depriving ourselves of things is a set up to not succeed. I will agree however, that there are just some foods that can not be in the house. For me this is candy. I can't have it in the house. I will eat it. No matter where I put it, I will eat it. So I choose not to buy it in mass quantities like I used to. Now, once in a while I will reward myself with a regular size Hershey Dark. I don't eat it all at once, though I absolutely could. No, I just eat a little at a time. Savor it, and make it last. It is flexible restraint.
Just like those rubber bands, we need to be flexible, but with some restraint. I would not buy a bag of Herhseys Minis because I know I would end up eating most, if not all of them. So I gave them up. But I still get my chocolate fix with that regular chocolate bar. Flexible restraint.
I can bake cookies or brownies from a mix and not even give them a second glance. Why? Because I know the difference between box and scratch. If I make cookies from scratch--which is rare. It is hard for me not to eat and eat those yummy things. So I choose not to make them very often.
But there are things we just will not give up. And guess what? You don't have to! I like hot chocolate at night. Yum. I tried the diet stuff. Gag! No thanks. Tried sugar free. Ugh! Just give me the regular stuff. I am not drinking gallons of it. I just want a nice cup of it now and then. And sometimes, I get an extra special treat of hot chocolate from Starbuck's. Sheer heaven.
We can exercise a little flexible restraint(and portion control) and not have to give up the things we love. If it proves to be too much, perhaps for a time you need to have it away from you. Then you can try again later. What foods or treats will you not give up? How will you exercise flexible restraint!
2 comments:
Interesting question! Hot cocoa is something I really loathe to give up. But once it is warm again, that wont be as hard. Really, though, my biggest hurdle is trying to find new and different ways to get something naturally sweet in my diet so i don't resort to refined sugar. Not easy!
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