Victory yesterday in the "all or nothing" category.

When I'm "on" I will eat a paleo style diet - meats, veggies, healthy carbs.  When I'm "off" - lordy you don't want to know - even I would rather not know (part of the problem - more on that below).

Eating healthy during the day is not hard for me.  It's what I want, what I crave, what makes me feel good (aka gives me pleasure).  I actually don't like to eat crappy during the day.  But IF I do, it messes with my all-or-nothing mindset and I spend the rest of the day eating crap.  Counterintuitive, stupid, illogical ... I know.

Okay, long loop to get to my story of yesterday.  Out to lunch with a friend who loves to eat low carb.  Easy to lunch with her since paleo works well with her needs too.  Yesterday, she wanted a treat and surprised me with a pizza pick for lunch (she knows I love pizza).

Ugh.  Cue the ugly head voices.  I just had an on-track day the day before.  Not ready for pizza - 'cause I consider it an "off" food at lunch time.  But she was so excited. Only needed one slice but ate 2 slices (it was the lunch special - duh).  And to top it off, pizza was not very good.   Oily, bland, not worth it.

Now dinner time.  Youngest home from school ... "let's do pizza."  Oh no.  Oh yes.  2 more slices (but at least yummy this time).  So the only healthy meal was breakfast.  And with kids entering the picture (pantry) for the summer, I picked up some goodies as a welcome home.

That my friends is the perfect storm (or perfect equation).  Bad eating = more bad eating = raid the amazingly decadent panty = failure.

But ...

I decided to tract my food in MyFitnessPal - but never really got it off the ground (because I was eating too much - no electronic evidence thank you).

Luckily for me I had finally committed to try it for a month and see if I like it.  Accountability.  No way do I want to enter a bag (or 2) of chocolate into my day.  But that's not really the complete why (since that's a bit all-or-nothing ... will only log if I'm "good").

Here's what seems revolutionary to me.  I logged all the pizza (even choosing the higher calorie choices from the list) and I still was on tract calorically for the day.  Not the best day, but not the worst either.  Hello MODERATION!

IT CAN BE DONE!  Moderation can be MY friend too. Moderation of not following every rule I think I should follow ... allowing life to unfold some days without the perfect plan ... and being okay with that.

I seem to love (or want) food rules.  Eat this, not that (and, yes, I have the books).  Don't combine this and that.  Only eat so many times a day.  Never do this.  Always do that.  It sets me up for being on-or-off. And all the rules are different.  It's too much ... and too much leads to being overwhelmed ... and being overwhelmed leads to giving up.  I need to stop this pattern.

I have SIMPLE guidelines that work for me and that should be my focus.  I don't need so many rules.

Okay - long, rambling post.  I'm even sick of writing it!  Today is my last day off ... long work stretch begins tomorrow.  Wish me luck :-)