When you’ve been a life-long dieter (sigh – seven decades for me), you learn a lot of lessons about the slippery slopes of dieting. At least, you should learn lessons from every successful (or failed) diet you’ve been on.
Walking through the grocery store this morning, I spotted some diet foods that pretty much destroyed my past diets. Too much of anything – even diet foods – can undermine a diet
Here are some of my personal examples. I’m sure you have your own.
Power bars for lunch – what a great alternative. Depending on the nutrition label, they can be under 200 calories and they are certainly a healthy choice and much better than a meatball sub! But for me, one is not enough. If Power bars are healthy, why not have several?
Low calorie ice cream. Seems like a nice alternative, but when was the last time you had ice cream and actually measured that half cup 120 calorie serving? Don’t tell me you were satisfied with that amount and didn’t scoop just a smidge (or perhaps a lot) more into the dish.
It comes down to dieting being a head game and having will power. Buying something because it says “Low Calorie” on the label is – on one hand – smart, but it can be a setup for failure. If candy-like low cal bars are the best thing you ever tasted, but you know you can’t handle them, don’t buy them. If you’re in front of the store freezer eyeing that low calorie ice cream, consider whether you can handle the portion control and how long it will take you devour that entire container.
Consider past mistakes. If your history reveals that every time you buy those boxes of prepackaged 100 calorie snacks, every time you buy lite popcorn, every time you buy diet soda – you binge on those foods, then what are you doing buying them again?
If you can’t handle some foods – don’t have them in the house. Food is an addiction. I certainly know how to diet (don’t most of us?), but put the wrong foods in front of me, and my addiction kicks in. I may be a successful dieter right now, but I know my food triggers and how easily I could back slide, especially with “low calories” choices.
I can be proud of myself when I am out with friends and refuse a chocolate mousse dessert. But I also know that if I am not careful and draw on all my willpower, I could easily go home and eat six low calorie biscotti cookies (only 50 calories each) when no one is looking. If I did that, who am I kidding!
