I’ve had reason to change several rather entrenched pieces of my lifestyle, mainly regarding alcohol, food and exercise. Regarding the first two, I have found that while moderation works very well for me, what doesn’t work well at all is indulging a little relatively often. It’s completely pointless for me. Having, say, two potato crisps does nothing for me except make me wish I could have more. On the other hand, gorging myself on potato crisps and other unhealthy stuff, but doing so rarely, works perfectly. Next morning I get up and it isn’t gorging day, so I leave it alone.
I’ve seen several people who are apparently quite happy to have one bite of chocolate or something when they’re dieting, and then leave the chocolate alone. I can do that, of course, but I don’t see the point. I’ll just want more chocolate, and I want it a hell of a lot more than I did before I tasted some.
So, how about the rest of you? Are you the kind of person who indulges little or rarely, and either way, why?
Food is my issue and like a lot of perfectionistic food addicts and eating disorder folks, it’s all or nothing. Once you have a bite of something “bad”, the whole day is shot and you can go nuts, and swear to be perfect tomorrow. You can imagine how that works out. :rolleyes:
On the whole, I go through phases where I eat everything I can find and ones where I can follow a reasonable food plan with no problem. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what happens when, so I just ride the roller coaster.
But in short, no, one bite doesn’t do it for me either.
I indulge with chocolate in binges.
If they have halloween candy half-off the day after, I will buy many bags and just plow thorugh them as fast as possible. Then forget to buy chocolate for a month.
I’m one of those people who eat one piece of chocolate a day (or two, just usually not the whole thing). I’ve worked on my food issues, too, gigi. It’s taken a long time, but I can have snacks and junk food in the house and not eat it all. As a matter of fact, it took having snacks and junk food in the house and allowing myself to eat anything I wanted any time I wanted for me to get more normal about it.
And I don’t diet, either. I swore it off years and years ago (but not before I wrecked my metabolism, which I am still working on correcting).
What **gigi **said. I’ve been on a pretty strict diet since January 2004 and while it’s been a great success overall, I’ve been struggling since approximately August because I often lose all perspective if I allow myself a treat and just engorge myself.
Concerning dieting. If I pick one day, usually Saturday, to gorge myself, I’ll feel so bad about it (physically, not emotionally) that I don’t even want to look at booze or food for the first part of the next week. Then, by Thursday or so, I still have willpower because I can look forward to Saturday’s feast.
I’ve always been an all or nothing kind of person. When I was trying to quit smoking I couldn’t understand how some people would cut down and wean themselves off cigarettes. Until the day I quit I was a 2 pack a day smoker.
As far as food goes I’ll gorge myself for a day or a week and then go back to eating healthy. (Healthily?) I’m like gigi too:
I can’t eat a little bit of chocolate either, that’s just torturing myself. Now that it’s the Holidays I’m pigging out until January.
I used to have a problem with drinking, after a few glasses my self control would go out the window and I’d think if 3 drinks were good, 3 more would be better. Now I recognize that 4 drinks is just overkill and I’d pay the price the next morning. That I learned from experience.
That reminds me of a Paula Poundstone routine - something like she was on a diet that allowed 1000 calories a day - she took her calories in the form of three beers, and after the three beers, who cares about the diet?
I don’t seem to get addicted to stuff. For years, I’ve had a cigarette when I feel like it - sometimes once a day for a week, sometimes a few cigarettes a month, sometimes months without smoking, sometimes get offered one and smoke it, sometimes say “no thanks” if I don’t feel like it. The last pack of cigarettes I bought lasted me 3 months, and about half of those cigarettes were given away to other people anyway. I can’t imagine smoking a pack a day - thinking about it disgusts me just like thinking about eating twenty burgers a day.
Same way with alcohol. Sometimes a few beers, most of the time no alcohol, and very rarely, I’ll get drunk. No issues with it.
Maybe QtM or one of our other medicos can give an opinion on the following (coz I’m not a doc and I don’t make any claim about its accuracy):
About twenty years ago, my step-father (who loves a drink or six) was told by his doctor (and I paraphrase from memory): “Look, the number of standard drinks that they’re saying a healthy adult male can have daily is probably more or less right, but you’re better off having them all at once, once a week. Two beers is just going to leave you wanting more, but have ten once a week instead, and you’ll get a pleasant buzz (and frankly, that’s what you’re looking for), and you’ll give your liver a whole week to detoxify. Drinking daily, on the other hand, is no good for detox - you damage your body and you don’t even get anything fun out of it.”
With chocolate I’ve found that if its really good dark chocolate (like an 85%+ bar), all I want is a single small square. Hershey’s Kisses - I want the whole bag.
Same thing with Ice Cream. A small dish of rich “boutique” ice cream is more satisfiying than a lot of “the cheapest thing at the grocery store.”
And I often (almost daily) have ONE or even HALF a glass of wine. A single drink is enough to fuzz my brain, and I’m still at the point of realizing that a second drink will add a headache to that fuzz.
But, I’m horrible with munchies. I don’t even LIKE pototo chips, but if they are out, I eat them. Perhaps because you can’t do the quality trade with cheese doodles.
Good point about the munchie food, Dangerosa. With those, I don’t leave them out, because it is way too easy to sit and eat the whole bag while watching television. Those are especially kept in the kitchen, where I have to get up and go get a handful when I want some.
I guess you could look at the specialty chips as the quality stuff. But sometimes you just want Cheetos.
I can definitely do moderation with alcohol, since about half a glass of wine is usually about when I start to get too sleepy to finish it. Moderation with chocolate is sometimes possible. Moderation with potato chips is completely unheard of. As far as I know, potato chips are only sold in single-serving bags, sometimes larger than others.
My body tends to go through natural phases of cravings, and then gives them up just as quickly and unexpectedly. I also do not become addicted to things very regularly. I regularly go through smoking phases, my body will just crave it all of the sudden and I’ll smoke 3 packs a week…for about 3 weeks and then wake up one day and go “Blech!” and quit cold turkey for a year. Same thing with food, I typically eat very healthy and it’s because I am really repulsed by overly fatty or generally crappy food. But for a week now I’ve been addicted to this Chinese place that I’ve eaten almost every day at work. I expect that in about 3 days I won’t even think about the place again.
So, I overindulge to the point of quitting that behavior/diet/etc. cold turkey for a very long time once my body gets tired of it. I’m afraid I’d probably keep these habits if I did them with more moderation.
I never have been able, nor wanted to, gorge myself on anything. The only food I might be in danger of not stopping eating is cashews but the most I’ve ever had at one sitting was maybe a third to a half-cup and I did it one time. I usually have about an eighth of a cup and that suits me fine. I love chocolate but have one or two morsels (mini-bars or portions of a chocolate bar) per day at most. I’ll have two or four cookies but never more and I’ll go days without any.
I’ve found that too much of a food isn’t pleasant at all, where just a bit can be wonderful. That bit has to be savoured, though. You can’t just inhale it. You have to let it permeate your tastebuds.
I put on abut 20 lbs I didn’t need when I was working in a horrible job where I was being actively mistreated. I was eating a chocolate bar or two per day. I’m interested in reading about health and nutrition and realized that ‘mouth hunger’ shouldn’t be mistaken for real hunger and that the chocolate bars were comfort, not nutrition.
After seeing photos of me with the beginnings of a double chin (me, whose nickname had been ‘skinny’!), I decided that when I wanted to eat, I’d figure out if it was my tongue or my stomach that wanted food. If I wasn’t hungry, I could have a taste of whatever I craved. If I was hungry, I’ll have more. It worked wonders. Those pounds dropped off (due to other dietary changes, but I know this helped) and stayed off.
I have never liked the idea of being controlled by anything, including by something as small and silly as my own tongue. I sure wasn’t going to let it rule me to the point of ill health. I’d never give up chocolate but I can’t even remember the last time was that I ate a whole bar at one sitting. The payoff is excellent cholesterol and BP and feeling good when I move which in itself is a pleasure. Stuffing myself to the point of feeling ill isn’t. Not a hard choice.
