Moderation vs the "all or nothing" approach...

I think moderation works best for certain personality types. Even as a little kid eating Lucky Charms, I always saved some of the marshmallows until the end, so I wouldn't be stuck eating just the boring oat pieces. There's a part of my brain that wants to save things for later. And if I eat the entire bag of candy now, I won't have any for later.

That said, I also only cook enough for my husband and I to eat. Can't overeat at meals if there's no leftovers. I'd rather buy ice cream as ice cream sandwiches than as a tub of ice cream, because I'm more satisfied with one bar at ~150 calories than one tiny scoop in a bowl for the same calories.

And there's some foods I usually only eat on weekends, when I don't log my calories. It's something that works for me. It keeps me from feeling too obsessed. I know from the past when I did log every single morsel that it's damn near impossible for me to undo the work I've done all week in one weekend, even if it's a major blowout party weekend. So I don't sweat it. I still try to be mindful of what I eat (a couple handfuls of some snack, not the whole package) but I don't associate any guilt with it.

I have a problem with moderation when it comes to sweets, carbs, junk food...can't eat one cookie or one piece of chocolate or one single serve bag of chips. My solution is simple...I DON'T buy them and have them in my house. I don't believe "Oh, you can have cookies in the house, just only allow yourself one" if moderation is an issue.

It is worth it to address those parts of you that are "all or nothing". We talked about this in my weight loss therapy class quite a bit. Does the following pattern sound familiar? The dieter maintains a strict regimen for a week, then "slips up" and goes off-plan. She "gives up" and doesn't monitor her food intake for the rest of the week, vowing to start fresh on Monday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion

One way to break through this sort of thinking is to set 80% goals. That is, I am going to walk at least twenty minutes five out of seven days this week. If I do more, yay. If not, I've still hit my target.

My experience with clients and people who do the "all or nothing" approach is that the percentage of people who do the "nothing" approach is much much much higher than those who do the "all" approach.
Our society in the US totally reflects this. With 65% of the US being overweight or obese. I am assuming that of the 35% who aren't overweight or obese, 15% don't do any extra exercise at all and don't eat "clean". Of the 20% left, I'm betting that 15% of them eat moderately and not on some restricted program (this would include many elite athletes). So that last 5% would usually be the extreme people who won't do anything else but eat non processed and whole natural foods only.
I'm glad to be part of the 15% that do it moderately rather than the 65% of "nothing" approach or 5% of "all" approach.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I'm not great at moderation, so I try to make enough room for the whole thing - whatever that thing is. One "trick" I used successfully when I was losing, though... I would buy the thing and immediately throw away whatever portion of it I wasn't planning to consume. Order the fries, dump half of them in the trash before sitting down with the food, and that's the end of that. Buy the pack of cookies, open it, give or throw away all but the serving I'm eating, and indulge thoroughly in that serving. Order the cheesecake after lunch with my son, draw a "his/hers" line across it, and don't cross the line because the rest is his.

Bonus... My dismay over wasting part of my money on food I threw away was sometimes a useful disincentive: Do I really want to spend three bucks for those 3-4 measly onion rings?

jenniferplatter wrote: »

I have a problem with moderation when it comes to sweets, carbs, junk food...can't eat one cookie or one piece of chocolate or one single serve bag of chips. My solution is simple...I DON'T buy them and have them in my house. I don't believe "Oh, you can have cookies in the house, just only allow yourself one" if moderation is an issue.

Yeah, I don't buy the things that are my weakness. I need my willpower for other things!