From skwigg's journal:
These are a few of the things I consider to be cornerstones of my happy eating:
- No off-limits foods. None. (Discovered that labeling something "bad" or "dangerous" made me approximately eight gajillion times more likely to overeat it.)
- I usually eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Tried 6 meals a day, tried intermittent fasting, arrived at 3 squares as being best for me.)
- I'm physically hungry before most meals and very satisfied afterward. (Being hungry for a meal makes it so much more enjoyable! Eating enough to be satisfied is critical for me to make good food decisions and avoid chaos, obsession, and cravings.)
- Perfect is the enemy of everything. (Being messy and happy consistently works better than being perfect or not trying. All or nothing usually spells nothing.)
- I don't snack unless I do. (Generally, I feel better, enjoy my food more, and hunger signals are clearer if I don't snack. But if get hungry between meals or find something yummy and special, I will certainly eat.)
- I don't weigh myself or let weight determine my mood or actions. (I focus on the big picture of consistency over time and feeling my very best. That's the plan every day. )
- I love absolutely everything I eat. If I don't love it, I don't eat it again. If I do love it, I'll find a way to have it regularly. (Loving my food keeps me from losing my mind and overeating stupid stuff out of rebellion or frustration.)
- Vegetables are better with cheese, butter, or olive oil. OR smushed into a smoothie with berries and bananas. (I ate way too many plain, steamed, unsalted, yuckball veggies in my bodybuilding days. Zinging them up with cheese, oil, seasoning, or fruit is the way to go.)
- Fruit is awesome! (I feel best if I eat plenty of it every day.)
- I put peanut butter on everything. (I have no explanation for this. LOL)
- On a related note, I put sriracha sauce on everything. (I mean everything: burgers, pizza, spaghetti, sandwiches, crackers, veggies, eggs.)
- Sometimes I put peanut butter and sriracha sauce on the same thing. (Burgers, crackers, celery, carrots.)
- I love to eat in front of the television. (That "don't eat with distractions" thing makes me hate food and life. I love to eat with Netflix, the interwebz, HGTV, or a friend. I just don't eat while watching The Walking Dead because...zombie intestines.)
- Strength training is sort of magical. (I discovered that it sends my food to all the right places.)
- I sleep 7-9 hours every 24. (I may not get them all in a row, but I get them. Energy, mood, workout recovery, decision making, immune function, all of it is better with enough sleep.)
- All of my meals don't have to be the same size. (Lunch is usually my biggest meal of the day, often twice the size of the others. It's when I have the most time to enjoy cooking and take my time eating.)
- I like big meals and I cannot lie. (All of my meals aren't huge, but I love a huge meal. No shame.)
- Shame is fattening. So is guilt. (Somebody smart said, "It's not what you eat but how you FEEL about what you eat that is imortant." So true! My self-worth isn't tangled up with what or how much I eat. When it was, OMG, the food drama! The stories I tell myself are important, so I never choose painful horrible ones.)
Sunshine, that one, not eating less now so I am eat more later, was hard to come by at first but it’s been very self-rewarding! I find that eating what I want now, truly with no restriction, naturally makes what I want later more reasonable, and that’s so nice and neat I keep on doing it. The main example for me personally was I used to deliberately skimp on breakfast and lunch so that I could eat a big dinner. I just assumed that’s what I wanted because it’s what I always did, and I wanted to have that last meal of the day wide open with (caloric) room to spare so I could really indulge. But, in fact, when I eat heavier or later lunches now, I just end up eating smaller dinners, regardless of what the food is or if we’re eating at home or out, zero temptation to overeat. I always assumed I had to cut back somewhere or else I’d end up overeating overall. But I don’t actually need a huge dinner when I’m eating more during the rest of the day. It was a leap of faith at first, but it’s really cool seeing both my physical and mental appetite self-regulate.