We've talked about this before Jo. You and I have reached a similar place. Food is nourishment and I have no desire to ingest poison. In fact just thinking about the junk people put in their mouths makes me feel a little sick. It's really nice not to have to fight with myself about whether or not to eat something. If it's high carb junk then the answer is "no".

Jean

This is a bit after-the-fact, but we're still surrounded by the remains of the day so here it is:
I told myself that January is coming. I thought about how I would feel to get on the scale and see a gain at this point, and I knew it would be very difficult and discouraging. That was enough to eliminate any serious consideration of changing up my eating.
I realized several months ago that if I was faced with a decision about what to eat, I make crappy decisions. I can always rationalize or cobble together a plausible reason to eat something. So I made a decision not to have to make decisions. If it's not something I eat day-to-day, I don't need it, and I take a pass.
I realized that for me, the hardest thing is not eating this way, or exercising. It's having to fight the same battle over and over again; deciding is the hard part. So I just opted out of having to decide. I don't have to eat junk food, and I won't.
I, too, have derailed myself many times by thinking that I can eat the sweet and carby treats, just like other people. Someone here said `People tell me, you can eat just one. No, I can't. If I could eat one and stop, I wouldn't have gotten fat.' or words to that effect. Sorry not to give credit where due, but that struck a chord for me, so I remember the words but not who said them.
I don't think in terms of `bad' or `naughty'; that feels like a set-up, and reduces me to a level of being a misbehaving child. That's not the situation; I am an adult with an adult understanding that I have a problem that is manageable, and I don't want to go back to where I was. So I don't eat the way that I ate that got me fat before (many times over).
Much ado about gut biota these days; perhaps if we eat this way long enough, the sugar-craving population dies off and we no longer get the overwhelming `Feed me sugar!' demands from the body.
I dunno. All I am sure about is that January is coming, and so is summer, and I don't want to get fat again. That makes it easy.

I make it more complicated. I made goal and maintained for 5 years. My weight gain seems to be thyroid problem. My roommate estimated my calories at 3000 and my carbs at 300, I worked out 3 hours a day, without gaining. I knew it was bad eating. It didn't make me fat or anything else. That's where my weakness lies. Once my thyroid was messed up again I became very obese, at first out of habit and then eating because a little chocolate buys you a couple hours of energy. So I don't know how you all work with that.

That's a good point Kathleen about the morality of food. Its just food and we have to eat in the way that is best for our physiology.

I don't want to get fat again either. I feel that people perceive me as neary invisible or very dumb depending on my fat cells.

You're right, having thyroid issues is a horse of a different color for sure and of course it makes losing weight more complicated...

Since I don't have a thyroid issue, I know my obesity was strictly caused by eating the wrong foods (and too MUCH of it) for my carb processing metabolic disorder.

Yeppers, we really have reached a similar place in our life-long journeys!

I still remember this prayer you shared in thud123’s journal on 9 Jan 2016.

It truly resonates with me every single day b/c that's really how I perceive the foods I eat.Yeah, I copy and keep all the inspiring posts people write in here. And this one really is a gem!!

I must say this discussion has been so insightful and also has kept me on track the last week days. I kept coming back to read this thread. We are holding ourselves accountable to stay true to ourselves and our health which is great!. I played out the script as a friend once told me they do in AA. Thanks you ladies and gentleman!

Yesterday was tough because the pipes in my condo froze and is most likely because my neighbors have been gone on vacation for a while. I had to turn the heat up so high I couldn’t breathe and eventually water came back on. It was a situation like that which brought up old triggers and I thought at that moment junk food would be very comforting.

I played through the script my 10 year recovering friend who is in AA told me to and how would I feel the next day. She told me to use all my senses in how I would think, feel and act. It was definitely a place I didn’t want to go so I stuck it out boiling hot water so I could at least take a quick bath after working out and being all sweaty and ate a turkey sandwich on my low carb bread and a salad. I even had a few sugar free cookies. I woke up this morning 2 lbs lighter!

Thank you again and having this forum where we can support each other has been so helpful and encouraging.

That AA advice is awesome. A burrito has been chasing me all day (I tried to distract myself with can of tuna but it appears to be toxic). I know I'll feel awful pretty fast after eating a gluttony fish burrito and sometimes they use too much cabbage and it clashes with the green sauce, and sometimes their singed.

Great job persevering Nic.

Gosh, yes. This is a tough time of year for the gluten-free people But since I don't eat gluten (and will feel awful if I do) I walk through the breakroom for weeks without any effort

Kathleen I've never been a just one person, not even a just one box person!

WereBear I'm similar to you. Our food sensitivities and insulin issues can work in our favor, having to exercise to keep your metabolism up - it all ends up forcing us into healthier choices.

I had no problem with Xmas dinner. My daughter thoughtfully made me gravy and stuffing with no bread or flour or cornstarch. They were so good that even the kids ate it. But the New Year's Eve party for the kids, going on for several hours, finally got to me. After a wholesome meal of almond flour coated chicken, broccoli, raw vegetables and fruits, I gave in later and sampled the bowls of starch - various chips and cookies, plus some vanilla ice cream. It was all awful, and I did not enjoy it but felt I wanted to try it. After having no sugar for so long, it is too strong and sweet for me. It's just so ingrained in me to use Sugar Twin that the taste of real sugar is far too strong for me. My daughter said none of these treats are good enough to break your diet for. But I tried them anyway and can't understand why the kids like them. I think it's like going back to smoking. If you gave up sweets and lost the taste for them, it would take several tries to even enjoy sweets again. I remember at a restaurant the kids said their ice cream was the best in the world, homemade. I tried one taste and it wasn't. It had a refrigerator taste. I assume that my long term avoidance of sugar has made it unpalatable now. PS I didn't gain weight from the New Year's Eve indulgence. I was surprised and my daughter said I didn't eat that much. I think maybe small amounts of sugar and starch can be tolerated without weight gain if they are infrequent. However, I know I can't push it. I go back immediately the next day to Spartan eating.

I have had times when one bite of a cookie or piece of pie would trigger a gigantic overwhelming need to eat more. That happened one year ago on New Year's Eve. But I wasn't dieting then and I hadn't tamed the sugar/starch thing.

This reminds me of the new treat I invented. It's crunchy peanut butter (a protein) with organic unsweetened apple butter (a concentrated apple spread). It requires no bread to get the taste of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from childhood. I've only had it a couple times and didn't gain weight. Here's another rich dessert I used to make but I'm sick of it now. Cocoa and Sugar Twin beaten into heavy whipping cream. Almost no carbs but very rich and stopped all craving in its tracks.

Those treats sound good!

Sweets taste overly sweet to me too. I used to love frappachinos and ice cream now I can't tolerate them. I used to mix peanut butter and splenda with butter nuked. No longer need splenda it tastes normal to me unsweetened.

How are you doing Nawchem? Speaking of sweets, I made low carb fudge yesterday and had a piece at night. I woke up to my throat being on fire and had no almond milk or even whipping cream on hand. All that was there was regular milk and drank a cup because it coats the throat immediately. I found at that moment it was so bad and I have no persciption for acid reflux. My acid reflux has become a lot more rare these days so I sort of screwed up because milk has sugar in it. My throat feels better. Back on the wagon!

Girl Scout cookie season just ramping up here, and that's an excellent illustration of my principle. I used to buy boxes of these (good cause, I would tell myself) and my plan with them really wasn't thought through. I didn't buy them thinking, "I will eat an entire box in a day, and repeat until they are all gone." But just because I didn't plan on it doesn't mean it didn't happen. It was a default setting, the outcome of not-planning. And even if I had planned to just eat a few, and share the rest, it wouldn't have happened.

Knowing that about myself, I now tell the girls, "No, but I'll make a donation," and I do.

Again, this is amoral--neither bad nor good, neither naughty or virtuous. It's just an is-ness, a what-is, a reality of my body chemistry in combination with trigger foods. At this point, I really have no further need to experiment.

Even the LC treats are treading dangerous grounds for me. If I am looking for something to eat just for the pleasure of eating, I'm starting to slide down the slippery slope. This process of retraining my appetite is a slow one, but I can tell you that it's working. I don't feel deprived in not having treats. I had some slices of salami with cream cheese between them a few weeks ago, and took concerned note of how this functioned for me as a strong stimulant of my pleasure centers, and how I wanted to continue to eat them--not out of hunger, but just chasing that high. I didn't have any more, because I know me.

I don't use the sugar-is-poison route of avoiding eating the treats out there. I have more of a snobby, nose-in-the-air attitude: a sniff, followed by "I don't put THAT in my body." Seems to be working for me.