Fuggedabutit

A word to live by. At least, it's how I am beginning to view my daily eating plan.

There was a time in my not-too-distant past that if I ate something I knew I shouldn't, that led to a whole day of eating, followed by another day and another day, until I was out of control.

Now -- and I honestly have no idea why -- if I eat something naughty, I don't beat myself up anymore. What that has done -- and again I have no idea why -- is to stop my uncontrollable eating. It has also made me calmer and more focused.

I don't waste my energy reprimanding myself for my lack of self control. And once I stopped doing that, I started making much better food choices.

A few days ago I ate one of my favorite treats -- Trader Joe's Gingerly Nutty Mix. I think it's the chunks of preserved candied ginger and the macadamia nuts that I have a hard time resisting. Usually, I would eat this treat, never considering what harm I had just done to my diet. And this treat was always followed by another treat, and another treat -- you get the picture. I had blown my "diet" so I might just as well continue eating.

This time, I did something I had never done before: looked at the nutritional label to determine how many Weight Watchers POINTS I had just eaten. Suffice to say I made a huge dent in my weekly allotment of 35 extra POINTS.

That was an eye opener. And mentally, instead of calling myself an out-of-control loser, I simply said, "I'll never do that again."

And I really believe I won't. That was stupid. And not at all worth the POINTS. Sure they taste good, but so do other things that won't pack on the pounds.

And the other thing I did after my nutty feast: Went home and had fish and veggies for dinner. That was a breakthrough.