Throw away the chips

I knew someone who could unwrap a KitKat, eat one stick, and then put the rest away for later — seriously! Everything in moderation they said.

For some people everything in moderation works. But you need to know what foods are your "trigger foods". For example, I can't have a bag of chips in the cupboard, have a few, put the bag back, and have a few more the next day. If I open the bag, I'm eating the bag, and since I ate the bag, I might as well order a pizza, and if I'm going to order a pizza... here we go again.

The gate is opened.

I like everything in moderation, I prefer "some things" in moderation. We need a variety of foods, we have a lot of taste buds, they all need satisfying. We simply can't eat chicken boobs and leaves for very long. We've all tried, right? How long did you last? Two days? Two minutes?

Nope forget it! Eat the foods you like. Don't cut out bread, and pasta, and potatoes, and butter, and all the things you think are "bad". Just eat less — half a bagel instead of a whole one. We've all heard this before, we get it.

Unfortunately though there are some things that need to go. The trigger foods. For me it's all the junk. I can't eat one cookie, I need the whole bag. I can't eat a slice of pizza, I need the whole XL with double cheese. So, when Chris and I are paying attention to what we eat (sounds better than dieting) we don't allow those foods in the house and we SHUT UP about them. For you, a slice of pizza with a salad might be all you need — no trigger. For you, potatoes might be your trigger, although I don't anyone who eats a potato and then needs to eat the whole bag...

So, trigger foods are off-limits, which brings me to Rule#2.

Rule#2 No cheating. Well duh, but you just can't break this one. I've gained over 30lbs breaking this one. Chris has gained even more breaking this one. We get it but how do we stop breaking it?

Oh, I know... consequences, two of them. The fear of an extra morning walk with Mollie and McCully (see last post) worked so well to "shut us up", how about a whole WEEK of mornings for cheating. Awesome, right?

That works if one of us cheats, but what if we both do? Now, I don't think this will ever happen, since just talking about it has a consequence (Rule#1), but this plan has to be air-tight — fool proof. Paul and Chris proof.

So, if it completely goes off the rails and my living room turns into a buffet, we have agreed that we will add an extra evening dog-walk for a week. At least that way we might burn off the binge. By the way, I'm just waiting now for the dogs to start tempting us for the extra walk. Can we interest you in this Twinkie?

OK, we have two rules so far:

1. Shut Up

2. No cheating, duh

There is a third, which I will tell you, I am enjoying completely today...

PS I've lost 5 lbs so far and I've hit the gym every day. Let me know how you're doing? Then get to the gym.

Now what?

Do it: What are your trigger foods? Get them out of the house, and make them off-limits — be ruthless. Make up your own totally vile and completely irritating consequence for cheating with the trigger foods.

Eat it: Celery with cream cheese or peanut butter (just a little)

Workout with it: Slow (Chemical Brothers Remix) - Kylie Minogue

Shut up and share: If you're enjoying the posts, shut up and share 'em. Just use the Twitter and Facebook buttons on the right, or copy and paste the URL. Thanks for reading!