What Does Moderation Look Like For You?

Moderation can be done by portion size and/or frequency. So if a single serving in your day isn't working for you, you could always try just having a treat less frequently but allowing yourself more of it. For example, bank a few calories each day during the week so you can have 2 cupcakes on Saturday without sacrificing nutritious food to fit in the extra cupcake.

Moderation to me means not opening something up and eating from the container. If I have room in my day to eat 200 calories of something, I weigh that amount out and eat it.

To keep myself from overdoing it I leave the highly desired items for the end of the day. I log the food I am going to eat for the day - including the fun food. I know if I deviate from my plan it might mean no fun food after dinner.

Log before you eat. Fun-size. A Hershey kiss is 25 calories. A 'serving' is 11 kisses. No, a binge is 11 kisses. A serving is a kiss. That's what moderation looks like.
A cupcake, depending how tall the pile of sugared lard is on top, is at least 400 calories and could be as much as 800. Once you have a ballpark clue of the cost of food, it's easier to decide that it's too expensive.

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Log before you eat. Fun-size. A Hershey kiss is 25 calories. A 'serving' is 11 kisses. No, a binge is 11 kisses. A serving is a kiss. That's what moderation looks like.
A cupcake, depending how tall the pile of sugared lard is on top, is at least 400 calories and could be as much as 800. Once you have a ballpark clue of the cost of food, it's easier to decide that it's too expensive.

Who puts lard on a cupcake? You use butter unless you're making a meat cupcake.

Moderation is knowing you can have a cupcake once in a while without freaking out and misrepresenting it to make it sound gross.

BreakinChains wrote: »

I initially decided to try giving up processed sugar for an undeclared amount of time. Yeah, that didn't work. I'm hearing a lot about moderation, and as stupid as it may sound...I barely have an idea of how to do it. To me moderation is eating just a serving of something (I'm talking about the junk foods).

The hard part is I eat one cupcake, and I want 2 more. I think I know HOW to moderate, but I don't know HOW to not go back for seconds, thirds, etc.

So, my question to you is how do you eat in moderation? What keeps you from over indulging?

To me moderation means not going by feelings but looking at meeting my needs. It means eating appropriate portion sizes.
I look at my whole day. I look at my calorie intake and then my protein intake. I try to get serveral servings of fruits or vegetables. I have 100-300 calories to use on snacks.
I can eat one cupcake every single day. It is not a rare food at all. If I eat 3 cupcakes I likely can't eat enough food that meets my nutritional needs, is filling and stay within my calorie goal so I won't be helping myself at all to do that. I can stop at one.
I eat more slowly with foods like that and really experience it. Kind of like a food meditation. Satisfied with less that way it seems.

In the past I would eat a doughnut just because it's on the counter, even though doughnuts taste pretty "meh" to me. Every time there is cake, I felt I had to eat a piece for some reason, even if it's the sponge kind that I don't like. I used to eat them just because they had a "fun food" label in my mind. I had to strip some foods of this label. I don't buy expensive ugly shoes just because they happened to be the first thing I laid my eyes on, so why would I be spending that many calories on things I didn't like?

Now things are different. I generally don't eat doughnuts or sponge cake because I don't like them enough to warrant the calories. Even things I do like, like ice cream or chocolate, I only eat when I really want some. How do I decide if I really want some? I pre-log the item in question then ask myself: would planning my meals for the day around this item and eating lower calorie meals be worth it to eat that ice cream or chocolate? If I can't be bothered, then I don't want that item enough to have it.

I don't keep "temptations" where they are staring me in the face. No sense in testing my willpower unless necessary. I either tuck them into the darkest corner of my fridge/cupboard where I would need to haul out all the foods covering them to get to them or walk all the way to the stairwell to get my step ladder, or go to the shop to specifically buy one serving of that item. This serves two purposes: out of sight out of mind, and I make my laziness work for me. I think about these foods less often, and when I do, a passing craving often resolves itself quickly because of laziness. When I really do want something, and it's worth the hassle, I have it. No place for guilt there.

Another trick I use, especially when I'm out, is leaving the highest calorie items for last. After a filling meal I'm less likely to go for a second slice of cheesecake.

Normalizing foods takes time and practice, but once you're there the whole process feels semi-automatic. By normalizing I mean judging foods based on preference, not based on "junk" being more attractive just because it's junk, bad, forbidden, guilty pleasure... and all the other words that set certain foods apart as somehow naughty and therefore attractive. There are days when a mushroom and vegetable ragu is more attractive to me than hot dogs, and there are days when hot dogs are more attractive. Nothing's wrong with either dish, and nothing makes one more special than the other, other than my preference for that day.

In practice, moderation looks like this for me:

- Had my food for today, still have calories, feel like having some chips and willing to go to the shop and buy a single serving pack. I go to the shop and buy a single serving pack then go back home.

- Had my food for today, have no calories left, feel like having some chips. Can I wait until tomorrow? No? Would I be fine eating fewer calories tomorrow? Yes? I go buy a single serving and either exercise to make up for it, reduce my calories for the next day, or just let it go if it's a passing thing that doesn't happen often.

- It's a birthday party and I just found out about it. I set my calories at maintenance for that day, enjoy only the things that I like the most, and if I do go over my maintenance, I recognize it might set me back for the week but one higher calorie day is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

- Going out with friends for a planned dinner. I skip breakfast and eat a light lunch, and if I know the restaurant is particularly high in calories I also set my target to maintenance for the day although more often than not I don't need to. Enjoying my time with friends without having to worry about calories is worth that small and temporary sacrifice.

- Feel like having pizza for lunch. I log 3 slices of my favorite pizza and comes out at 750 calories leaving me with only 300 calorie for dinner. Nah. Some other day it might be worth it, but not today. I've already had a large breakfast and I was planning to have pasta for dinner. Either pizza or pasta today, I'll stick with the pasta and have a light lunch.

...and so on. As you can see, moderation looks differently in different situations. Just don't stress too much, expect to have to exercise a good willpower at first and put some effort into it before it becomes much easier to manage. Even then, sometimes one square of chocolate is enough to scratch the itch and fairly easy to fit, other times you want the whole bar, and that's alright as long as it's only occasional with careful planning. There is a difference between controlled overeating every now and then and mindlessly spoiling yourself with high calorie indulgences every day.