Cannot stop this overeating bad habit...

Listen to this man! It's nice to see someone on a livable diet in this forum. Depriving yourself is a recipe for yo-yo and/or frustration.

My "diet" is not a deprivation diet AT ALL and I hope that you guys weren't talking about me when you said that my plan isn't liveable... I believe in everything in moderation.

LOL, I just realized how defensive that post was! I just meant to say that I agree, sensible diet and exercise is the way to go, NOT deprivation.

Anyway, I'm down a half pound this week, which is great! I've accepted long ago that even though my body can easily gain 8 pounds in 6 weeks, it will take at least a week to lose a pound. (Easier to gain than to lose. )

I hope that everyone is having a great week!

My nutritionist is a firm believer in "splurges" now and then, especially on special occasions without feeling too much guilt about it. That doesn't keep her from going on about how my splurge could have been a little "smarter" though. The fact that you make an exception to the normal way you eat now and then shouldn't make you feel guilty.

But if you dream of eating "the food you really like" instead of what you are "forced to eat" by some diet, I think that is doomed to failure unless you are extraordinarily disciplined.

If there is something you're craving that you can't in good conscience eat regularly, look for a way to make it healthier so that it can be closer to a staple. I love those pocket fruit pies (like Hostess fruit pies, but actually healthier -- those things are awful nutritionally). Over time I've looked for recipes that allow me to eat these fruit pies (only with lower calories and sodium and actual fruit) as well as more bread and those soups I like too. It's amazing that two bowls of clam chowder can taste so similar but be so different nutritionally. One may be 500 calories and 2000mg of sodium and the other can be a 200 calories and 150mg of sodium. If you can cook some of your own foods (your favorites) and they can taste better and be healthier, they can be staples and not splurges. That's my trick to maintaining a diet that is not only what I should eat, but what I want to eat.

And I don't know how it works with women, but I go up and down a pound or two all the time rather than slowly down. Very demoralizing sometimes when I'm eating well and exercising to actually gain weight over a couple of days, but you have to just stick with it. Even over a week or two. My nutritionist/trainer says that if you do the same kinds of exercise your body gets used to it and stops losing weight as easily, and thus she keeps me switching off to various kinds of exercise. During the summer it's swimming mostly but at other times I do other things.