My self-challenge is complete. The goal was to write down what I ate, no matter what. I accomplished that goal. Here is what I learned:

Never Dieting Again

In 30 days of dieting, I’ve learned so many things. I say “dieting” because I discovered my mindset was not as it should be. Dieting implies something finite; something that ends. This is a life plan for eating well.

I caught myself thinking, “I can’t wait ’til this is over.”  It is that very mindset that trips up everyone who ever intends to lose weight.  We give ourselves permission to think we can let the new eating behaviors go, and that means we can return to our old ways of eating. That invariably leads us to gain it all back.

A Hard Choice to Make

I know.  “But it’s so HARD,” we say.  Yes, it is hard, for those of us who love our food, love the variety, love the sweet and the savory. Ultimately we have to come down on one side of the issue or the other.  Do we crave a thinner, more healthy body or do we crave satisfying our candida, our tastebuds, and our over-taxed dopamine receptors?

Like Driving a Car

Current estimates indicate it takes 66 days to develop a new habit. Don’t despair; that means going all the way to making it completely automatic, like driving a car. It does become easier before that. For some people, it takes only a few days of a week to stop the cravings.

I found I didn’t crave sweets for weeks.  At first, I thought it was because my body ran out of sugar fuel stores and started the cravings, but that isn’t what happened.  I only started craving bad food again when I went on vacation and allowed myself to eat as I pleased.  Big Mistake. So, though 30 days is finished, I can’t report on making a 66-day complete habit-change yet.  Stay tuned.

It’s All About Feeling Full

I think one of the most productive lessons I learned is that if I just didn’t give in to the wrong foods when hungry I could stay on track.  If I am extremely tempted by naughty foods, I can just eat good-sized portions of the foods on my plan and wait 20 minutes for my brain to get the signal food is on-board. Then, I can turn my nose up at the previously tempting goodies. Finish good food first, fast! Get full and problem solved!

Do you have any other tips that might be helpful? Share it with the rest of us below, and thanks!