"Everything in Moderation"

moderation to me, is I don't fully cut that item out. My theory is, I am eating way better than I did a month ago, the changes I ammaking are still better than the ones I had before. So instead of taking away that great side dish of rice I love so much, I don't put a serving size on my plate, but I put a tablespoon or less. So I can still have the taste of it. I still eat mac and cheese with the kids, but like anything else I put enough on the plate for taste, sometimes if I know I have not met my carbs for the day then I might spurge and have a full serving, but most days, I don't.. In a way, I do the weight watchers points theory..I bank it..Not that I am following WW, but if we are running errand and I know my kids are hungry or we just want to go out to eat, we go. But the difference now, is that I don't tkae that double quarter pounder, fries and large sweet tea..Kinda makes my stomach churn now after not having it, but I will choose the chicken sandwhich..yes I know it has just as much fat and cals as the others, but I dont eat a whole sandwhich I pick at the bread, and nomrally only eat a few fries, and I get water or I get a small tea. I have actually kicked the tea habit too, so I do their bottle water. one of my fav places is Chic Fila, for breakfast, and if you see my diary I still go, but Imake up for the rest of the day, and actually as of last friday, it just doesn't taste as good as it used too..I ended uip eating the chicken and a bite of the biscuit, the hashbrowns, blah! never thought I would say that about it..But I think with me not taking things completly away, has helped..I am more conscience, and as time goes by my taste buds are changing...

Just my two cents..

I only eat one pound of Cheetos per day and a single liter of Dr Pepper.

To me, it's, if I want the "bad" food, like for example, I love chicken planks from Long John Silvers. Instead of getting a "value meal" which consists of two planks, two hush puppies, fries and a 32 oz soda, I opt for the two chicken planks. That's only 280 calories, though high in sodium, and it pretty much always fits into my calories. At Wendy's, I opt for the Spicy chicken sandwich with pickles, lettuce and mustard, which is around 400 calories, as opposed to the Asiago Ranch Club Spicy chicken which has in excess of 700 calories.

This works for me because I'm still getting a taste of whatever it is that I'm craving, but it's not going overboard and screwing up my whole day. There are times when I *do* go overboard, but they're few and far between and I don't allow those days to control my entire life. There's no sense in giving up because I had a bad day or two. I actually had a whole week, almost, that was not good a couple weeks ago. I got over it, got back on track and am losing again. I know that "everything in moderation" probably doesn't work for some people. Fortunately for me, it *does* work for me, and I am very grateful. It makes this lifestyle change a whole lot easier to manage.:glasses:

I have a small treat each day, normally about 200 cals or under, and that helps me stay on track. Occasionally, every couple weeks, I get a candy bar, go out for frozen yogurt, or have a meal out. Most of the time, I'll enjoy myself, but not go wild, and eat to where I'm satisfied instead of stuffed. However, I have a problem with control when it comes to certain foods (sweets especially), and occasionally I find myself back in old habits, eating practically everything!

(or, to paraphrase the NRA..............Food doesn't make people fat, people make people fat)

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The food industry has a LOT to answer to

Like what? All the information is on the box. The only reason they do what they do is because people are too lazy to figure out how much they're eating. There's nothing complicated about splitting a pizza in several pieces.

Just take responsibility for what you eat rather than give that responsibility to the food industry... If they don't have responsibility (except providing correct info on the box) then they have nothing to answer for as well.

I agree the information is there but that has come after a lot of lobbying - but I also agree with Bluefoxer because fundamentally the food industry is out to make money - it will write 'Lower fat' in massive letters and that is not done for the benefit of the consumer it is done for the benefit of the company trying to sell bad food to a lot of people who don't have the time/knowledge and sometimes inclination to work it out. (and given we're all on MFP we probably are a bit OTT/OCD about this but not everyone is and some people won't notice that a 40g pack of crisps gives the calories for a serving size of 25g...)

There's a great book called Mindless Eating which looks at the interaction of food companies' marketing/packaging strategies and individual psychology and whilst not advocating some kind of conspiracy theory I don't think you can ignore that food manufacturers' goals are to sell as much as possible for maximum profit for their and their shareholders' benefit...

It makes me laugh when people say "everything in moderation is good for you"... What a nonsence statement... cyanide even in small quantities isn't 'good for you'.

But that aside, I think some folk have a very wide interpretation of what 'moderate' means.

For someone who used to eat a 6-pack of jam doughnuts every day, they might argue that 2 doughnuts a day is being "moderate". However that's still 800+ calories (of which 36g of pure sugar - a whole days allocation) with zero beneficial nutrients. Doesn't look all that 'moderate' to me.

I don't think people are saying everything in moderation is good for you, rather that it's not the end of the world. So to use your example cyanide naturally occurs in many foods like flax seeds, apricots, almonds, soy, etc but people generally don't worry about the levels because we can deal with it when it's in moderation - a leathal dose would probably not be considered moderation (I'm not sure that it's the same compounds used in poisonings though).

There are no "bad" foods, only bad eaters.........

(or, to paraphrase the NRA..............Food doesn't make people fat, people make people fat)

HA! That's great.

The food industry has a LOT to answer to

Like what? All the information is on the box. The only reason they do what they do is because people are too lazy to figure out how much they're eating. There's nothing complicated about splitting a pizza in several pieces.

Just take responsibility for what you eat rather than give that responsibility to the food industry... If they don't have responsibility (except providing correct info on the box) then they have nothing to answer for as well.

Really? you don't think they have any accountability as to what they put in our foods, how they are marketed and presented?? They have huge responsibility that clearly they don't like...just like the tobacco companies. it might have escaped your attention that obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease etc are prevalent in the obese who,by some quirk of society also tend to have lower standards of education and employment.