@jaynie,

Always reason from First Principles.

• Your weight is the result of a simple formula: Calories consumed minus calories burned. Yes, I know, there are other factors that slightly modify that dynamic, but let's leave it at that for the sake of argument.

• The human mind is designed to deal with acute stress, not chronic stress. A lion shows up, you panic and climb a tree. When he get's tired of waiting and departs, you climb back down and go about your business. The point is that plans that require Willpower, 24/7, week after week, month after month, tend to fail. A chronic willpower plan is swimming against the stream.

A better idea, in my opinion, is to eat a diet that reasonably satiates your yearnings (not ridiculous stuff ... good quality fare with as little processed food as possible) and from which you derive pleasure ... added to 30-45 minutes of rigorous daily exercise (running, for example).

Psychologically, it is MUCH EASIER to exert intense mental disciple for half an hour (acute), than it is to exert even medicore mental discipline all day long (chronic).

Such rigorous exercise not only burns calories in the immediate, but builds muscles which consume calories 24/7, even in your sleep ... effectively, permanently ramping up your metabolism. Plus, "being toned" is sexy and "feeling sexy," secretes a host of Reward neurotransmitters.

The trick is not to make such a big deal about the exercise that you end up not doing it: Gym memberships; personal trainers; hundreds of dollars of electronic gadgetry; exercises no one's ever heard of before.

Shirt, shorts, shoes. Run. Throw in some push-ups and sit-ups when you get back to the house. Shower. That's what soldiers have done for millennia. And, to boot ... if burns off stress.

A delicious meal (which can easily be made of reasonably healthy foods) is life's most common hedonistic pleasure. To constantly deprive oneself of such is an invitation for despair and chronic anxiety.

Of course, nothing in life is free so the 30 minutes per day of rigorous exercise (1/48 of the total) is the cost. A short period of pain for a long period of pleasure. It's how our brains were designed.

Quill