From skwigg's journal:
Most of the time, I am not getting overly full, or not hungry by the next meal, etc. The only time when that seems to happen is when I tell myself that eating dessert every day needs to stop, and then I eat too much of whatever dessert there is...
Yes! Exactly that. It's a given that I'm going to eat dessert every day, every meal if I'm really on a roll. That doesn't mean I'm overeating or gaining weight though. Dessert can be a couple bites of something amazing, or a piece of good chocolate, a hard candy. Dessert doesn't always mean a slice of cake the size of my head. It's more mental, feeling like I've had a little treat, or looking forward to one later.
I love feeling like I can have it all, if that makes any sense. I can have fitness and muscle definition, and I can eat all my favorite foods. The only reason I couldn't have it before was my thought process, not the particular foods. If I'm thinking that at some point certain foods need to go away, of course I'm going to eat more than I need. Now's my chance! Even if that scarcity thought is subconscious, it will cause you to repeatedly overdo it. Knowing that I can eat whatever, whenever, and as much as I want only makes me more thoughtful about what I want. It doesn't feel like license to overeat, which is what I'd imagined that state would be. I thought, well, the opposite of restriction is face-stuffing. If I can eat whatever I want, I'll overeat. But that's dealing in the crazy extremes of the restriction/overindulgence pendulum. Happiness is in the middle where you're not doing either. You're eating your delicious meal when you're hungry for it, eating until you're pleasantly full, and stopping in a place that feels right for your health/desires/intentions most of the time.