MadisonMarie.'s Journal, 20 April 2012

Sometimes it is not a food adjustment but an attitude adjustment that will make the difference between achieving your goal or not. Healthy living and healthy eating is not a *test* to cheat on - it is something you LIVE every day. It is not a matter of *cheating* but making choices. You are going to live a long life, why would you want to live it feeling guilty and stressed over a few choices you made that in your mind are *cheating*? Think of food as options that you have every day. Most lively most of us will never go our whole life never eating a hamburger or pizza or ice cream sundae ever ever ever again. That is not logical nor realistic. So you had a hamburger. In the whole picture, it is not the hamburger that adds weight or makes you unhealthy ... it is too many hamburgers and other choices that waylay you from your goal. So you had a hamburger at lunch? So what did you have for dinner? Did you eat healthy? How about the next day breakfast - did you eat healthy? One hamburger in a week of good choices is not going to make any difference, so you might as well have made that choice, planned around it, or for it, or planned after it to make better choices for the rest of your meals for the day and the following days. Eat that hamburger with gusto and enjoyment. Savor it or any other food choice that you MADE THE CHOICE to have. Then MAKE THE CHOICE to BALANCE that one with healthier choices ...and guess what ... you will have enjoyed a great treat and you will still be on point for your goal. The idea here is to find a balance of eating. Not *dieting* or *cheating* or *guilty* but LIVING. Living with making good choices which include hamburgers (or pizza, etc) but in OVERALL *healthy* choices meal by meal. Suddenly that *guilty pleasure* is not longer *guilty* but rather a treat you choose to have at a time when you will enjoy it. I have lost 117 lbs ... not by diet but by "live-it". Making good choices over time. Anything "forbidden" looks more tempting. If you know you CAN have it any time you choose to, you will find that you often choose NOT to have that choice at that time. I eat healthy most meals ... but I do love going out to afternoon tea so once or twice a month, I plan on going to afternoon tea. I look forward to it, I plan it. I make sure my choices on the day before are good choices, lower in carbs, and the day of my tea, I make sure my dinner is low in carbs and the next day I also just watch my carb count. I don't starve, just add more veggies and less carbs. My afternoon tea I am then free to enjoy and savor the tea sandwiches, the scone and the tea cookies. I don't go overboard but I don't deny myself this treat and I don't feel guilty in the least. The scale may temporarily go up a half lb or so the next day or two, but then it slides right back down again by the end of the week, and I usually lose an extra lb or so that treat week too. Don't think *diet* think Live-it. This is the way you will live the rest of your life - great choices for healthy eating and great choices for a wonderful treat now and then. Your weight will not be a fight - it will stay low naturally.