How silly

July 21 was National Junk Food Day, a day I heard about from my friend Ronnie Fein, but one I chose to ignore until now.

I know that when you are trying to shed pounds, eliminating all the foods you love just sets you up for disaster. But a day to honor the foods that none of us should really be eating, the ones that are high in saturated fats and low in any nutritonal value, seems a tad ridiculous to me. These are the foods that contain the almighty trinity of ingredients that any great chef knows people love: fat, sugar and salt.

And the purpose of the day: to give everyone permission to eat exactly what they want. That can't be good.

If I have learned anything on this diet journey, it is this: Giving myself permission to eat ANYTHING I want is a recipe for disaster. It is something I can never do, because if I did that, the next day, I would continue eating. When I really eat horrid one day, so horrid by the time I get to sleep I feel as if there is a bowling ball in my tummy, the next morning I wake up ravenous. And although I went to bed repeating over and over, "Tomorrow I will diet," the next morning I wake up hungry, dreaming about the foods that will stick to my waist, and the cycle begins all over again.

Last Saturday night, when I decided to have a treat -- homemade biscotti -- it was a conscious decision and one I took without making myself a promise to eat healthy on Sunday. I gave myself permission to eat the biscotti. Could it be that I am finally thinking like a thin person, although I certainly do not look like one. A thin person would never eat a sweet on the condition that the next day they would eat well. For them, eating well is what they do. And if they can fit a treat in without gaining weight, then it is working for them.

If I keep thinking like this, maybe this time next year I will be thin.