My rant about "cheating"...

Great post, as always, Happy! I have learned so much from reading your posts here.  I, too, am a food addict but not quite as far along in my journey of recovery as you obviously are.

Thanks for another great bookmarked post!

That is exactly the approach I took when dieting and lost 120 lbs that way, without a sleeve. So I know it works for me. I think I would go absolutely crazy if I didn't have something "naughty" once in a while. It always seems to break a stall for me too if I eat something fattening for one meal.

You are so right! Thanks for the clear-thinking post.

I just wanted to say Thank you for this post it was very helpful! Your so right thin people eat cookies and not healthy stuff do they say ohhh I'm cheating today?? No. This is about a life style change to be healthy and learn how much you can eat and not eat how much to exercise and make BETTER choices.

 Well said 

 Like!!!

For me, there is no cheating either...  I went through a great binge treatment program pre-op.  During my time in the program, I learned that if I crave something, I should eat it.  Not a ginormous portion, but a normal serving of it. For me, this cures my craving.  Eating this item is not "cheating" for me, unless I don't log it.    Eating this item does not stall my weightloss, or make me crave more of it.  But, that's me.  Everyone is different.

Note, my philosophy does not give me free reign to eat everything in site.  I eat mindfully, I follow my plan, I work out.  Each day, I combine common sense, my learnings from binge eating treatment, mindfulness, and my doctors plan.

Yes, I'm a little worried I might have sounded like "eat whatever you want."  Instead, I mean I have to own my choices and eating off plan doesn't pull a fast one over on anybody (which is what I think "cheating" sounds like).

 I know where you're coming from and agree 100% :)

Very well said! 

I cringe whenever I hear or read someone refer to "cheating" in regards to their eating.

I don't "cheat."  I choose to eat or not to eat something. 

This isn't a game to me.  This is my life.  Food is neither inherently good or bad.  It's just food.  It is fuel, nutrition and occasionally a small pleasure.  Cheating implies being sneaky, bad or tricking someone.  It also implies that I should feel guilty or ashamed for doing it.  Choosing to eat something, no matter what it is, is not something that I need to feel guilty or ashamed of, nor is it something inherently bad.  It's one choice, one food, one moment in time, that I take full responsibility for.  My life is made up of choices, moment by moment, from here until the day I die and I make the best choices I can at any given moment and then move on. 

Thanks for posting this.

 I agree :)