Aren’t you tired of dieting and restrictions? Do you find it difficult to give up what you like to eat? Do you find that when you deprive yourself all week, you end up overeating on the weekends? Or when you deprive yourself all day, you overeat at night?
Think about your favorite food (Peanut M&M’s are mine-220 calories and 26 grams of carbs.) Imagine you could have 500 calories of your favorite food every day-(that would be 2 bags for me) would you be satisfied?
You wouldn’t feel deprived, because you’re not denying yourself. You wouldn’t spend all day thinking about the foods that you can’t eat- especially during those common “trigger times”, like the mid-afternoon lull or before dinner. Chances are, you would feel satisfied, knowing you would be getting what you want.
You would also be able to avoid overeating the rest of the day because you know that you would get your treat after dinner.
Now that you’ve removed the feeling of deprivation, you can focus on what you’re eating the rest of the day. Just knowing you will get your favorite treat later, you can improve your nutrition and regulate your consumption of other foods.
Without that feeling of deprivation, you will lose the urgency to eat. You’ll feel less anxiety and less fear about getting hungry or experiencing cravings. You’ll eat less, and your calories will adjust.
This is an example of an “Abundance Mindset”- When you know a food is available to you anytime, the urgency to have it is removed. You can have it if you want, or you can skip it. It will still be there. No anxiety, no obsession, and if you do eat it, it doesn’t mean that you blew your whole diet.
So give yourself permission to eat your treat. Remove the stress of constantly monitoring every bite of food. You will be able to manage the rest of the day more easily. This is eating in moderation- You will see better results.