“Diet” is a 4 letter word for me. I hate diets and being told what to eat. I like going back for seconds, and finishing my meals with desert. I hate not eating fast foods or drinking soda. I followed every diet with a reward/celebration meal if I lost weight. Other times I broke the diet with a cheat meal that lasted the rest of the week. Either way, I always I gained back what weight I lost.

I focused on what I could and could not eat while following a diet.  I dreamed of being able to eat fattening foods again.  I learned to enjoy healthy food with a lifestyle diet that completely eliminated sugar and fat from my diet.  This lasted for about two years until I started to miss cookies and other sweets.  I found a cookbook with recipes for sugar free deserts and found diet versions of my favorite foods.  These substitutes did not taste as good and I ate large amounts of them since they were “diet”.  I remember making a diet version or a cherry cheesecake pie and eating the entire desert. I was okay with the 20 pounds I gained back since I had originally lost 90 pounds. Even though I had to buy new clothes, I was happy since I was just 2 sizes bigger and could still fit in “regular sizes”.

Proverbs 25:16 is, “Do you like honey? Don’t eat too much, or it will make you sick!” (Holy Bible, New Living Translation, 1996, 2004, 2007) God has blessed us with a wide variety of food. I spend too much time thinking about food, to the point that it has become an obsession. By allowing myself to enjoy small amounts of candy and potato chips, I no longer crave them non-stop. When I eat too much, I feel sick to my stomach. Too much candy does make me vomit. God has changed me so I want eat mostly healthy foods. I am eating less and losing weight without dieting.