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  2. if by amazingly stupid you mean LIKE MizFit—-then yes!

    I think it’s a personality thing perhaps?

    That some people *are* jolted into their ah ha! moment with the realization of dumdum-abundance (that’s a shout out to you Toddler Tornado) while others would eat the cupboards clean of Double Stuff Oreos time and time again (*points at self*)

    Miz.

  3. I’m not sure it wouldn’t work for me but I have a feeling I would gain 20 or 30 pounds before the mind set shifted.

    For me, my mind shift happens when I cut foods out altogether. I know it sounds strange but before I started WW I was eating up to 3 jumbo chocolate bars in a day, several days a week. And I felt like I COULDN’T stop. But it’s been 5 weeks since I joined WW and I haven’t had a single bar! Haven’t wanted one, haven’t craved one, really haven’t thought about one more than a couple of times. And this is huge since a big box of them sit directly in front of my computer at work.

    Well, that was really not the question was it LOL. I guess i agree that it is probably a personality thing and for other it would work but for me it would be extremely counterproductive even if the mind shift happened 30 pounds heavier.

  4. I have never heard of this dieting idea. I think that this is truly a personality thing and that it could work really well for some people and not at all for others.

    For me, I do not think this would work. Confession time :)- I think to the times when I buy products because I need them to make something that I’m bringing to a party. They’re things I usually avoid having in the house because I know they’re really bad for me (regardless of how tasty they are). Half of the time, I will try to just eat the rest of the leftovers of the item just to get them out of the house. I think regardless of the fact that the item would always be there (if I used this method), that I would be of that mindset that if I just eat them, they will be gone forever and I can get back to being healthy. thoughts?

  7. I hadn’t heard of this before. I’m afraid I don’t think it would be a solution to my problems! I do find it intriguing however. A lot of food issues do come from having certain foods restricted (by ourselves mostly) so I can see how having them freely available might change that mindset. Like Leigh Anne though I would probably gain loads before my mind caught up!!

    Perhaps just working on changing our attitude would be just as effective. When longing for something we can tell ourselves that we can have it whenever we want… we can go and buy it if we want but right now we are simply choosing not to. So nothing is off limits just delayed/post-poned?

    Easier said than done I know!

  8. Woot Woot Leigh Anne- I’m a Weight Watcher toooooo. MizFit I lurrve the new background.

    In other news, I like the *theory* of this diet but in practice, it might not work for me. I would write a mental note and hang it on my fridge for motivation (that’s actually a good idea for a post on MY blog)

    Abundance is great. Yay America. I try to remind myself of the fact that the food will still be there tomorrow if I want it. The only way I break my rule is if I’m at a restaurant or event and this is the only time I will have the food for a long time, if ever. This is seemingly working for me.

    Potty Training Connection: My mom used to let me put stickers on the wall when I got potty trained. Now I do that with exercise on a calendar. Everytime I do good, I get a sticker!

  9. No I don’t think that would work for me, and I haven’t heard of it either.

    I have been lucky enough (strong enough) to be able to cut out or cut down the things I needed to. Some are things that are still in the cupboard (as others in the house still have them), but I’m able to resist.

  10. I have to join the chorus of folks who say “not for me,” but maybe for someone else!

    However, I also can’t abstain entirely from foods that are bad for me, so single serving portions are my friend. Afraid I’m one of those boring “moderation” types!

    And I agree with crazylady about “postponing” rather than denying. It’s a great way to think about it so you can forgo a treat but not feel martyred.

  11. damn. You all make such great points and, for the USA’ers, so early too!

    (Any babysitters in the house?)

    Real life PS from my morning:

    Called a friend just now (good friend. GREAT. As it’s 530a here and I want her to come on over and hang with the TT & me) & she’d just finished watching the facetime.

    FOR HER it worked.

    Recently.

    Costco box of Skinny Cows (I’d warned her not to git these ;)) after Costco sized box of S.C.

    Now my next question (ever the investigative reporter—-NOT) was if she thought she’d have to do that with *all* her foodvices (her word. not mine.).

    She said no.

    She said it was a ‘clicking moment’ for her with regards to food.

    She said so.

    Methinks she crazy 😉

    But there ya’ go.

    Miz.

  12. Oh, no. This would totally not work kor me. I’d make myself sick of something and then move on to the next thing to make myself sick of and eventually I’d come back to the first thing and be ready for it again.

  14. leah? laughed out loud at that.

    I’d be the same.

    Oreos, poptarts & microwaveorvillereddenbacherOHMY!

    And then I’d start at the beginning again.

    Yet another reason why we need to carve out our own unique path on this journey huh?

    M.

  15. I think that’s more of an emotional thing. If you are an emotional eater, this might work, because you might see the trigger food as a reward for something you’ve done or shouldered or overcome, and after a while it no longer becomes a reward and will need to be replaced (hopefully by something good for you).

    I’m not an emotional eater, but if there were potato chips everywhere in my house I’d be rolling naked in them all day long, and then go out for french fries. I spend the extra money and buy chips in snack sized bags to keep myself honest.

  16. I don’t think this would work for me because I don’t think I have a trigger food per se. I mean, this weekend, I was all over the tortilla chips and guacamole while watching the games. But, we’ve also gone months without opening the random bag that appears and our pantry without (or I’ve not raided an open bag) without so much as second thought.

    I then thought…well, what about chocolate? Because I’ve been craving chocolate and can get a little *overzealous* in my consumption. However, I bought a bar of dark chocolate on Saturday (while out buying the chips — HA!), had two teeny squares and haven’t thought about it sense.

    So, nope…wouldn’t help me.

  17. I don’t think that would work for me…. But what you said about your toddler was very interesting to me – since I know that since I was raised with the knowledge that treats would not always be there (we got one cube of chocolate a day, for example) and they weren’t abundant, so I have had to work very hard to learn how not to scarf down every treat in site.I Have been toying with the idea of doing the exact opposite with my kids and now that you have put the philosophy in words it makes it sound a very logical way to teach a child about abundance and moderation.

  18. Marianne you have started me thinking…re-evaluating my own EMPHATIC no.

    in that I often start foods I can eat too much of in snack packs as well (even with your aforementioned $$ involved and the extra packaging waste) & then segue into ‘knowing’ a portion.

    or things such as almonds (I recall one member of the Bumbling Band saying she wanted to start eating these but was apprehensive about her ability to STOP at one serving) where I have no idea what a serving is.

    yada yada yada what Im getting at is I now buy the bigbig jars of almonds and STOP at about (approx) one serving.
    intuitively.

    perhaps I dismissed the Abundance Idea too quickly as hooey (Ive always wanted to use that word.)

    Miz.

  19. Hey! What happened to the apples? I swear I saw them this morning…

    I keep soda around the house. It lasts forever because my kids know they can have have one when they want it (after checking with Mom, of course). They have some friends who I can tell are forbidden soda, because those kids come over and drink until it’s gone. I have a friend whose mom raised her a strict vegan, and it all fell to sh*t when she was about 12 and found McDonald’s wrappers under the drivers’ seat of her Mom’s car.

    There is something to this, I just don’t know what.

  20. For me, this would never work. We have to keep all my “trigger foods” out of the house to keep me from bingeing after a hard day at work. I learned this the hard way, and now we buy treats when we want them, rather than having them on hand all the time.

    However, I know that each person is different, and the abundance idea might really help someone. I’d never dismiss it as complete phooey, but I do know that it would never work for me, and most likely not for a lot of people with binge eating problems.

    I’m interested to hear what everyone else thinks!

  21. Love the new look mama!

    I’d never heard of the Abundance Diet before, VERY interesting! I don’t think it would work for me to have a huge abundance of a treat because I would go crazy until it was ALL gone *but* I do do something similar. I often buy a treat, ‘just to have it’ in the house because it makes me feel better knowing that I CAN buy it if I want to, but I don’t have to eat it if I don’t want to. Kinda like a security blankey of sorts. Maybe it’s the power of owning it? ( It’s mine! ) and knowing that it’s there if I ever wanted it, even though I don’t. A metal thing I think. Does that make sense?

  22. I know there are foods I’ve been sick and tired of from exposure. Apples are one of those. When you work at an apple farm as a kid for a few years… or pick strawberries for a few years… ugh.

    I think it’s funny that you should pick oreo double stuff as an example. As a kid my lunch (every day for almost 14 years) was a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich on white bread and four oreo cookies. To this day I can’t eat either oreos or grape jelly.

    That being said, I find that I can go for a pretty long time eating the same thing day in and day out. I’ve lived on just popcorn and rootbeer for a long time…. or doritos and pepsi, or some combination there of.

    But there IS something to the abundance diet that has me thinking. Because FOOD is not always something we have in abundance. Because of our financial situation, there have been plenty of times we’ve fallen short, and as the cupboards empty and it becomes obvious that we aren’t going to make it to the end of the month, we all seem to suddenly feel hungrier… even if we’re still at the point where we’ve been eating normally.

    This month is a little different for us. We’ve fully stocked the fridge, freezer, and pantry, and yesterday the kids opened the cupboard and said “look at all the food we have!” (around mid-month, pickings start to get pretty slim) and I said “Yeah, so what do you want to eat?”

    Their reply? “Nothing, we’re not really hungry, we were just looking.”

    I feel the same way. I don’t feel the kind of urgency to eat when I know that we aren’t going to run out. I know it sounds perverse, but the less food there is, the more food we want to eat.

  23. Kate – YES! I do the “just looking thing” ALL THE TIME! Even if i don’t even really want anything. Just seeing it all there sometimes is enough for me. It’s the “knowing”.

  24. I think this might work for me long-term. But I’m WAY too scared of the short-term consequences to try it.

    I’ve lived alone for so long that to have ANYTHING unhealthy in the house sends me crazy for it (and yet I was never like at my parents house when growing up – cookies in the cupboard? Huh, not bothered, not hungry). So, like Erica, if I get anything in now for whatever reason I have to eat it quick so I can get back on the Ultrahealthy wagon ASAP.

    For this exact reason, just this very morning I FORCED my boyfriend into taking away a beautiful blackberry crumble his sister made for us because the thought of it being in my house actually made it hard for me to sleep last night with panic about whether I was going to end up eating any and what it would mean if I did or didn’t. If the poor boy wants some tonight, he has to come round to my house with his own bowl already portioned out so I don’t cave in to temptation.

    TA x

  25. I have never heard of this either. I do keep a little of everything around, and it doesn’t bother me. I’m not sure this approach would be a help. Or maybe I’ve done it without knowing it and am in a place where abundance reigns supreme. IDK.

    Hmmm.

  26. I don’t feel the kind of urgency to eat when I know that we aren’t going to run out.

    Kate? that’s totally what my friend and clients said.

    and TA I hear you on the short term fear.
    I cant see this working without some sort of short term gain?
    but the LONG TERM GAIN (emotionally….and then LOSS in pounds) was worth it/is worth it from those who believe.

    Im loving all your insights as Ive really no firm stance on this one…yet.

    Miz.

  27. Oh…never heard of the abundance diet and don’t think it would work for me. I would simply choose to eat and eat and eat. The only way I would stop eating the one item I would have in abundance would be by making myself sick of it…But then I would probably move onto something else!

  28. Love the fact time Miz 🙂 I’ve never heard of this, but I think it might not be too far off, at least for some people. In my recent struggles, I find myself eating certain things almost like “quick, eat it ALL before it’s gone!” or buying some new product, just in case I never see it again (please!).

    I’m trying to combat this mentally, though… not by filling the cupboards. I could see how opening the rents cupboard and finding it full of one thing would take the novelty away and reassure me it’ll still be there tomorrow, WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY.

  29. VERY interesting posting.

    I personally think that the key to eating healthy (for me) is to ‘switch the taste buds over’ so they are used to whole foods.

    I think that if (my) taste buds are ‘tuned in’ to processed – they just crave more and more processed. There might be someone out there that binges on veggies – but I do not. Nor lean meats. Nor whole grains. Nor beans (cooked from dried – not salted/canned). Fresh fruit – I have to watch carefully.

    In general – I do VERY well with whole foods as close to their natural state as possible. With them I am able to eat servings and eat at meal time and eat a very balanced food plan.

    But for me – introduce processed – and my wants are a run-away train.

    So, I personally am positive that this DE-Sensitivity training would NOT work for me – as one of my key challenges in the past was not to get stuck on certain foods (really they were NON-foods).

    I would get stuck on the abundance food and it would escalate instead of de-escalate.

    With all the people responding that this would NOT work for them – I wonder if most of us consider ourselves ‘food addicts’??? I certainly do (think that of myself).

  30. This is not something that would be a smart idea for me to try. I have an addictive personality and I would probably keep eating whatever it was until I could no longer fit through the door.

    Kudos on raising a child who can say she’s had enough of something that she’s eating…there is something to be said for that.

  31. I didn’t know it was called The Abundance Diet, but it turns out that’s how I was eating for about 20 years, and all it did was make me fat, flabby and sickly.

    Pick any of the following: Corn chips, Doritos, chimichangas, cookies, cake, chocolates: I’m sure I could happily eat any of them day in and day out for years without getting sick of them.

  32. oooooh dragonmamma.

    We *could* call it the Fat Flabby & Sickly Diet?

    Why do I think that might make it less alluring?

    😉

    Miz.

  33. The Bag Lady is still chuckling at the idea of Marianne rolling naked in potato chips…… (gosh, wouldn’t that be a little painful – potato chip crumbs in unmentionable places?)

    Because I live half an hour from the nearest grocery store, I tend to have a hugely stuffed pantry so that I always have something on hand to feed the hordes of visitors (hahahahaha) or make supper with. Ditto the hugely stuffed freezers and fridge.

    But most of what I keep on hand is boring stuff (she thrusts the 5 bags of potato chips behind her ample rear end and tries to look sincere and nonchalant….) like canned veggies and soup.

  34. love the new jazzy purple ….new tagline too?

    I can see how it would work for some! Cookies are my weakness………there is an abundance for weeks at Christmas……….and for weeks I eat,eat, eat!

    So…..for me, I don’t think it would work. But, on the other hand, to tell me I can never eat another cookie doesn’t work either. I just have to learn moderation……that is the key for the rest of my healthy years.

  36. I’ve heard of a variation of this for smoking. cessation! Smoke-smoke-smoke until you can’t stand it any more!

    Once I complained to a therapist friend that I was not getting along well with my parents. He said, I needed to go live at their home again to deal with the problem! That’s when I felt I had enough abundance right where I was 🙂

  37. INTERESTING point Dr J. Thanks for that!

    And Annette? You should win a prize as the first to notice the tagline 😉

    (And the twitter? Anyone? I’m officially busting out of the 90’s!)

    And to think I fretted about the change….

    I’m loving it as well.

    Miz.

  38. I’ve never heard of it but i just don’t think it would work. I can always eat more chocolate even if i’ve eaten enough to last a month i’d go back for more!!

  39. Ha, this is very topical for me!

    I have heard of this before, that one way of reducing emotional eating is to reassure yourself by always having your favourite treats in the house.

    As you know, I’ve been restricting my chocolate intake. I’ve only been stocking my cupboard with a selection pack of minibars of dark chocolate, 15g each. I don’t like dark chocolate. It’s helped in that I ate less chocolate of course, but I felt aggrieved and really craving (PMS has a lot to do with that). I ended up going, after a very stressful day last Friday, to the corner shop and buying and then consuming one large bag of maltesers and one small pack of Oreo cookies. This is the first ‘binge’ or treats I’ve bought from the corner shop in MONTHS. I deliberately cut buying sweets on the hoof or from a sweet/corner shop a while ago, only buying chocolate during my supermarket visit.

    Yesterday, my huband did the weekly food shop. He stocked the snack cupboard with some sweets he likes (jelly babies), fudge that I like and two big bars of milk chocolate (my favourite). Seeing them there made me feel very comorfoted and relieved. And even though I’m still PMS-ing very badly, all I’ve had from that treat selection is a couple of jelly babies. I haven’t even touched the chocolate. Of course, it’s only been one day, so give me time, but I really feel that for me it’s about having my comfort food treats THERE IF I NEED THEM WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY WORKING ON DEALING WITH MY EMOTIONAL EATING. Not having any nice treats in the house makes me obssess about having some. I find it interesting that the woman who gave up eating five big chocolate bars a day (well done you!) has a box of them in front of her. Maybe subconciously she knows she has access to them if she needs them, and that’s helped her?

  40. I completely understand the principles behind this diet. I am a quadruplet, and instead of running to the grocery store every day, my dad (who was in charge of doing the grocery shopping) would only go once a week. He’d buy whatever we asked for, as long as it was on the list he took to the store.

    Usually, the quantities for food were enough for everyone (we’d also order in pizza or Chinese food), but the junk food? We’d wolf it down, to make sure that we got some of whatever treat we’d asked for (once it was in the house, it was fair game for everyone, and it wasn’t unheard of for the person who asked for the treat to be the only kid who didn’t get any).

    When I was a teenager, I remember thinking that I didn’t want ice cream, but that I should eat it if I thought I’d want any that week, because my sister was (and still is) the type to eat large amounts of junk food.

    Now that I’ve moved out, I don’t feel the same way; I know that if there’s something I really want, BK will respect that, and not touch it. And I eat a serving or less per day.

  41. PS: Just wanted to add two things:

    (1) That just having sweets and choc I like in the house gives me the comfort of emotional eating without the actual eating.

    (2) This really is a long-term and not short-term strategy. The whole point is that it may take some people several months to build up to the stage where they don’t have the urge to cram their treat into their mouth as fast as possible. It really isn’t going to work in the first week for most people – you have to go through that stage of eating too much before you can feel the comfort of knowing your needs will be met if you need them, you don’t need to have a ‘feast or famine’ approach to your treat food.

  42. It makes sense but I don’t think it would work for me. There are many times when I binge out on bad foods for days and days and then ultimately get sick of it and not want it so much but then months later come back to it :P`

  43. thanks for sharing all that Tricia2 (you’re a quad? How have I missed that?!)

    You should write a diet book.

    With all 4 of you (sexes? Mixed?) under the same roof the same age it’s like one big case study.

    So helpful/interesting!

    Miz

  44. Before this post I had not heard of this diet. My immediate thoughts went to getting sick of the food rather than thinking in abundance. You said it in the video – it’s about shifting the way you think. I’m not sure that’s a road to travel alone, and I believe a support system would have to be in place to really make something like this work. That said, this is a “diet” I would not recommend to others, but then I’m not a believer in these “diets”.

  45. I hadn’t ever heard of this diet. For me it wouldn’t work, but I can see how it could work for others. It’s not a diet I would ever recommend to someone though. In general, I don’t think diets are a good idea. I try to eat how I’m teaching my children to eat. We don’t have any forbidden food. I buy soda and treats, but just a bit at a time. I’ve taught the difference between snacks and treats, and that a treat is only a treat when you don’t get it every day.

  46. I believe that’s called Intuitive Eating. Whole books have been written on it and lots o’ people swear by it. I tried it. I had 2 problems with it: 1) there is too much variety. Sure you could burn out on a couple of foods (like the Tornado’s dum dums) but for adults with a credit card there is a never ending abundance of these kinds of foods. 2) IE doesn’t take into account the addictive nature of these foods. People eat for lots of reasons and this diet only addresses one.

  47. it *is* close to Intuitive but, back in the day, it was all about focusing on ONE thing.

    Your trigger food.

    Your emotional eating food.

    But there must be a ‘real’ name for it (not my forced title of Abundance).

    Anyone?

    Miz.

  48. Let me preface this by saying that a) I can’t watch your video clip thingy at work so I don’t really know what today’s post is about yet, and b) this comment is really in regards to last Friday’s post about Lance, so maybe I should have put it on there. Anyway.

    Thanks for adding another blog to my list…as if I don’t already have too many things clogging up my brain (and sucking my time).

    Also…Miz…I had a dream about you last night. Or rather, you were in a dream I had last night. I don’t really know that it was specifically ABOUT you, but you were definitely there. Except that you didn’t look like you – I don’t remember much else about the dream except that you didn’t have those guns…just normal arms like other people. Weird, huh?

  49. It is rare to hear a completely new tack on weight loss these days, but I gotta say – this is a new on on me!

    My gut reaction is it’s a great gimmick, but that’s about it. I definitely suffer from the idea of getting the food before it’s gone – comes from IMHO big family life, where everyone kind of raced to get the good stuff because it would be gone no matter how much there was.

    That said, I truly think it’s just a gimmick. It might work for some, for a little while, but I don’t think its a life strategy. I think it’s a good way to perpetuate yo-yo dieting.

    Wow, I guess I really do have an opinion. Who knew?

  50. I’m the almond girl who can’t stop eating them. They’re tasty. But I make a point of only eating them when I’m just running out the door or else I’ll take a predetermined amount in a ziplock for lunch at work.

    Toddlers are clearly far better at figuring these things out than adults are! I’m inclined to think it’s a personality trait as well… I’d do something like Leah where I’d just start eating something, get sick of it, move onto the next one etc.

    I prefer the way that I’ve managed to “get rid of” some of my “foodvices”… kept trying to eat them less and figured out other foods to replace them, which I inevitably wouldn’t like quite as much so I’d eat less of them AND they’d be healthier. But, what works for one person isn’t going to work for everyone. That’s what works for me.

    This is probably worth a try if all else fails- but I think a lot of people would also be very wary about trying it just because they wouldn’t know how out of control they might get. It’s a bit of a leap of faith:) That’s very cool that it HAS worked for some people you know though!

  51. Love the new design, btw.

    This is an interesting concept. I think I’ve lived this. My parents were all health food when I was growing up (no soda, candy, sugar, junk food of any sort, etc.) and I would BINGE when I went to my grandmother’s house because she had Fritos and Oreos, etc. Same thing when I was able to buy lunch in high school and definitely when I went to college.

    But, as I’ve gotten older and started to live by “everything in moderation” I’m fine. I can have a big thing of Peanut Butter Pandemonium ice cream in my freezer and eat a little here and there but never binge. I think it is because I’m never depriving myself so I never have to horde the food (via mouth).

  52. ‘normal arms’
    that made me laugh, auntie.
    now I need to know what I was doing!
    Im at a crossroads up in herre so perhaps your vision, err, dream is supposed to be my CLUE?

    and MetroKnow? sure, I liked your comment, BUT what do I like more? that I read somewhere that you referred to your wife as SMOKIN HOT. that was so flippin’ sweet it has stuck with me.

    and sagan? glad you outted yourself. of course I remembered but I operate as if everything is always on the down low (as the kids are no longer saying).

    as the Roaring Lioness said: this is a long term strategy.

    Im not sure I could weather the short term to get there—-but to each her own.

    Miz., who now needs to find out what this is: Peanut Butter Pandemonium. THANKS for that Felice (wink)

  53. I was taught this (two counselors ago) as a “cure” for an eating disorder. Several people have mentioned emotional eating, but for someone with an ED, it is supposed to cure more than just the reward-connection with food. More along the lines of “I’ve always told myself ‘no’ and restricted, restricted, restricted. Now there is always enough.” The trick to removing the emotional charge connected to the food is to not criticize yourself while you are eating. Or after. Ever. So if you eat the whole bag of Oreos, you think “Those are yummy, aren’t they? How did I feel before I ate them? How do I feel now? Okay. Well, nice checking in with you, self.”

    It’s a good idea, but failed miserably for me. I think that giving myself permission is absolutely key. If I want a giant bag of peanut M&M’s, I can definitely have it. Not an evil food at all. But keeping it in the house doesn’t work for me. If it’s right there, I can just pick up the bag and sink into emotional eating land immediately. If I have to drive to get the peanut M&M’s, I spend the walk to the car, the drive to the store, the walk into the store, the time at the checkout, and the walk back to my car thinking “I love you. I am so proud of you for taking care of your needs. Are you sad right now? Why? Oh I am so sorry. That is so difficult. You poor dear.” I used to still eat the whole bag. Now, I seldom even make it out the door.

    (But this works with my toddler too–I’m guessing there’s less real emotional connection to the food there. It tastes good and they love the new flavor at first, but then kind of get over it.)

  54. Fitarella and Kate’s posts rung truest with me. I dunno if it’s biological or emotional, but I just feel more secure when the cupboards and fridge are full.

    That said, if there is a pint of Ben and Jerry’s in the freezer, I will eat the whole thing and could do the same thing every single day, forever, because it doesn’t fill me up that much and it tastes good. In terms of abundance, for me it works to keep an abundance of all foods EXCEPT the ones I can’t eat in moderation. So I guess that’s not the abundance diet at all.

  55. out of respect for Heather (whom I recall mentioned a few comments ago that she DIDNT wanna be BOLDED) I wont bold her insights.

    but read em.

    everything from having this notion recommended to her by a counselor to her nailing the Toddler food phenomenon completely (IMO).

  56. it is funny how that works isn’t it??? i think you might be right about that. right now (in georgia) we have a freezer FULL of icecream (my weakness). Almost every kind. Cookies and cream, ice cream sandwiches, skinny cow, drumsticks, but I have not even thought about having one. i lie. i thought about it, but i know they are there and i could have one if i want but i don’t want to! i am quite sure that if we didn’t have any i would want it. you might be onto something here!

  57. My problem with this diet is that I eat emotionally, so whatever is in the house is my trigger food. I don’t have just one.

    On the other hand this would be a great excuse to have ice cream and potato chips every day all day.

    Nehhh! I am finally starting to take control of my eating habits and I don’t think its worth messing it up now.

    Great post Miz! You always get me thinky in the a.m.

    Jenn

  58. To answer your question, you missed it because I don’t want it to be the first thing people learn about me, mainly because the most hurtful questions are asked by people who hear it right when they meet me (“who’s the hot one?” “oh so you’re the smart one then” the implication being that I only get ONE personality trait).

    I have two sisters and one brother, and am the youngest of the bunch. My parents were approached by psych departments to do studies, but decided that they wanted children, not lab rats.

    Once I get my master’s in nutrition, I’ll be writing a diet book.

  59. I don’t know if binging on my trigger food would cure me, i think I would just move on to another trigger food, as others have commented. But with many foods, i can buy big, big quantities and trust myself to consume them at a normal pace, like granola, nuts, and quality chocolate. But those are all “safe” healthy foods to me, when eaten in moderation. Where it starts to get sketchy is with foods that I’ve mentally dubbed “unsafe” or unhealthy, those truly junky things like Reese’s PB cups, M&M’s, store bought baked goods, candy. When those foods are in the house I can’t stop thinking about them and keep revisiting the cabinet for additional servings.

    Yesterday, after a really long run that left me with a big caloric deficit, I gave myself permission to eat whatever, bad, good, didn’t matter. At Target I passed a huge display of M&M’s, and fully intended to get a big bag to have that afternoon (not the whole bag, but still), when my husband said, “That’s OK, but you’ll need to hide the bag and not tell me, because I’ll eat them all.” And I realized I’d do the same thing, probably in two days. We skipped the M&M’s, saying I’d get myself a single serve bag at the checkout. By the time I got there, I didn’t even want them anymore. The idea of binging on them kind of turned me off.

  60. Ooooh – Interesting! I actually would be too afraid to try this out. I get the concept, but I also have struggled with emotional eating and binge eating. It’s a terrible road to go down… but now that I have lightened up on the whole “good food vs. bad food” idea, I know that I can have anything I want in moderation. Now, I also know what my weaknesses are, and what my triggers are… so when I have a “moment” and foods that are a weakness of mine are near by, it doesn’t matter if we have a truckload of them… I go to town! I think this is a diet that would work for some people, but I would be too nervous to try it on myself. Maybe I still don’t have quite enough trust in me?? Love this post!

  62. I think it’s a personality thing. The abundance “diet” wouldn’t work for me. If I want something, I eat it. There isn’t ever going to be a shortage of chocolate in this world. I could always go to Kroger and get what I want. Having it at home make it easy access. Having to go to Kroger to get some Ben and Jerry’s brings me to that extra step of “do I *really* want to drive there?”

    Ugh… potty training. Hats off to you Miz!!

  63. yes BANDANNAS OFF TO THE AMAZINGLY FABULOUS MizFit whose daughter was kindaeasily potty trained but shall be sleeping in a crib until the night before she leaves for college (julliard. she a dramaQUEEN).

    as always you are all AWESOME (ly generous with your time and your comments).

    small announcement tomorrow and the more I ponder the more I think, perhaps, they’re lucky to have US!

    Miz.

  64. I never heard of this as an ‘official’ diet before. But no, it would not work for me. The abundance diet is where I lived my whole adult life–I always had the BEST homemade chocolate chip cookies and brownies available in my house. I ate as many of them as I wanted. And I never got tired of them. I never will get tired of them.

    I think I agree with a lot of the commenters that it is a personality thing?

  65. Ha! Potty training and sleeping in a big kid bed are two milestones that I don’t get why people rush them.

    My older daughter, E, realized that she could climb out of her crib at 2 years 8 months. That’s when we decided to give her a big girl bed (though my mom asked if I was going to get her a crib tent…) I don’t think A will make it that long (since E is been hinting to ther that it’s possible to escape)…but until she climbs out, she’ cribbing it!

  66. I don’t know about the “stocking up” part, but I know that we keep chocolate and ice cream in the house, and for the most part, I don’t go near them. Every once in a while I will allow myself a little bit of a treat, but now I just don’t want to eat them. Last year, I can remember eating whole bars every night. Never again for me. 🙂

  68. Clarification: “if you eat the whole bag of Oreos, you think “Those are yummy, aren’t they? How did I feel before I ate them? How do I feel now? Okay. Well, nice checking in with you, self” does work for me. It’s just keeping large quantities of “treat food” in the house that doesn’t.

  69. I’ve never heard about this “diet” before. I don’t know if it would work. I never had a problem enjoying favorite foods in moderation, but I normally don’t have many sweets around. If I had cupboards full of sweets, I imagine that I would eat more of those and less healthy foods.

  70. Well, I don’t know how well it works. Having an abundance of my favorite binge foods in my cupboards is what got me to 250 pounds in the first place.

    I do keep some of those foods around now (cashews are one of them 🙂 ), but I have learned control. For a while, those things just had to be out of the house. I have been able to introduce some of them back into the house (like the nuts), but others I just buy a single serving of what I want and leave it at that.

  71. I wonder how many bags of Oreos I would go through before this idea clicked in my head.

    I finally allowed myself to buy crackers again (have fear that I will spread pb on them until the entire box is consumed). So far, so good. Still too scared to buy trail mix.

  72. I have never heard of this diet, but count me among those for whom this would NEVER work. In fact, just listening to you talk about it made me crave Pop Tarts (brown sugar cinnamon, please) like nobody’s business.

    When I was on WW, I had my trigger foods out of the house. Out of sight, out of mind worked for me.

    I guarantee you – if I brought even ONE box of Pop Tarts into the house, they would be gone within the hour. And I would never get sick of them, no matter how many I surrounded myself with. And there are several other foods that would have the same effect. So, no, no abundance diet for me.

    Great post.

  73. lori?

    I think you nailed it for MANY of us —whether it’s 10 pounds, 10,000 pounds or merely growing deconditioned—when you said that’s how you arrived where you are in the first place.

    Miz, who needs to GIT to a computer so she can check out MrsJellyBelly. Is that a shout out to my favorite beans?!

  74. I haven’t read all the comments yet, so if I say something that’s already been said, forgive me please!

    I’ve never heard of this diet, however I think I may have accidentally put this theory into practice without realizing it. I used to love love love Oreos and Ding Dongs. I once gained 13 pounds in one month during my first pregnancy just from eating package after package of Oreos! Those two snacks are also my husband’s favorites and so he always wanted me to buy them, so I would (and still do). Since we always had them in the house, they sort of lost their mystique for me, and now I don’t really care for them. I might have one or two Oreos once in a while as opposed to having 6 or 8 at one time, several times a week. And I can’t even finish half a Ding Dong anymore.

    So I think there might be something to this Abundance diet, but I’ve worked too hard to lose weight only to gain it all back while “testing” a theory!!

    I don’t know, I may have to think about this – I have an unnatural affection for Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies, and the thought of buying 6 bags makes me giddy!! =)

    Excellent question Miz!!

  75. I’d probably get tired of whatever it was I’d stocked up on evenutally – but only to replace it with something else! Out of sight – out of mind works best for me. And maybe not always “out of mind” but “not available when the craving hits” is a pretty good deterent too!

  76. I hadn’t heard of this and I don’t think this would work for me either. I do better when I have healthy choices in the house. Thanks for the info though…it is definitely an interesting concept!

  77. If it’s in the house I eat it. If I’m being “good” I don’t want it in the house. It will always tempt me even if I had it all week.

    I have eaten a lifetime of chocolate and still want more. So for me. No this isn’t a plan that would work for me.

    That said you look awesome in the video and your house is so neat!!

  78. Well, this wouldn’t work for me. I have bought a box of the 100 calorie box on snickers, had it in the cabinet for more than a month and then one day ate them all. It is much more about identifying my thoughts, not what is in the cabinet. I can binge on anything…even fiber one or ezekiel bread toast.

  79. Kiki? it’s always like that. the house I mean. Id NEVER shove all the crap to one side since I know the camera cant capture it.

    NEVER.

    and Allison? your comment about binging on anything is a really good point as well.

    I had a client (decade ago. different state. not breaking confidentiality) who would often joke (truth.said.jest.) she could binge simply on ingredients if that’s all there was around.

    again, as Blake said, interesting concept.
    for me? the masses? not so much.

    Miz.

  80. I think my problem with this concept is that I have *so many* “indulgence” foods. I like food. I can overeat on sushi, ice cream, or Bruchetta. Honestly. Food is tasty. ^_^

  81. Hmm, I have never heard of the Abundance diet before. I don’t think that it would work out so well for me, though I have never tried it, I would liken it to my Starbucks Chai tea habit. There wasn’t a Starbucks where I live for a long time and when I would go away on weekends to visit friends they all knew that it meant numerous trips to Starbucks to load up on the Chai-goodness. Then a Starbucks opened in town and it took away some of the specialness when I could have it whenever I wanted, once or twice a day if I was inclined to go poor in that manner. I decided that once a week was more than enough, but sometimes I will want it two or three times a week and totally go for it and when I do I go in to Chai overload and I wish I hadn’t had it, but it doesn’t last for long, and I am right back there wanting it.

    I think stocking up on my weakness foods would not work in the long run as I am one for acquiring habits and am afraid that if I stocked up on the Double Stuff, i would soon be eating them by the package as a habit. That certainly wouldn’t be good!

  82. I DEFINTELY think this works…but you have to have some faith, commitment, and mental toughness.

    I had never heard it called this before today, but this is the first step to intuitive eating. When I first started, I could eat an entire package of cookies, an entire bag of rolls, an entire container of ribena (my trigger foods at the time).

    Five years later? I still eat as much as I want, but it may be no cookies, or two cookies. It might be 4 slices of watermelon – which I add because I find myself much more likely to crave fruits and veggies than I was back then.

    It was a lo-o-ong journey for me. I don’t know why it works – maybe it teaches you that there will always be enough, as I have read, but that was never (consciously at least) my fear. For me, I think it was that I had told myself no, which made me think about those forbidden things, dream about those forbidden things…which is a recipe for overdoing it. Once I gave myself permission, I was able to enjoy moderate amounts and get to a point where I truly didn’t enjoy eating excessive amounts of said foods.

    I would believe that there are a very, very few individuals that this wouldn’t work for, but I think for most we are roadblocked by a fear of letting go, gaining weight…and so would never be able to get to the end point. In order to accomplish this, I had to accept that I might gain weight. Surprisingly, I only gained about five pounds before I started losing – but I ended up losing 35.

    You have to *commit* to eating that bag of Doritos, Oreos, freshly baked whatever! Sounds easy? I think it’s a pretty tough mental challenge because the trick is that you have to be convinced that it’s okay for you to eat. For a lot of us, that’s a foreign, crazy idea.

  83. Oh, HELL no. H-E-L-L no.

    Because it’s not about food. It’s never been about food. I have two boys, 9 & 11. I’m serious when I say that, even being a PE teacher, I could no WAY keep some of the *junk* out of the house.

    What I had to do: I made a drawer in the kitchen just for them. All that carp is in there. (It’s not JUST junk, but processed shiz, like Sun Chips, etc…and yes, some Yogos, etc.) And, you know what? They want apples, fruit, wheat thins, etc.

    For me, that abundance philosophy means I actually have a RATIONAL thought when I want to overeat. I don’t. I never have stood at the freezer door, and looked at the ice cream and thought, “Oh, it will be there tomorrow.” I have thought, “I must have that. Now.”

    When I started to make little rules for myself is when my relationship with food started to change. Like, no eating after 7pm. Or, no eating overly fatty foods the night before I run. I started to see how food could make me feel GOOD, or like hell if I was running in search of a bathroom on my 5am runs.

    No. My house has all that stuff, I just gotta follow Ms. V’s rules. And, if I don’t, I suffer. Big time.

    It’s never been about food. It’s been about filling that big giant emotional whole that I mistake for my hunger.

    Great thought provoking face time today….

  85. I’m with everyone else…it’s veto’ed. Then again I’m a compulsive eater, so this would be bad, bad, bad. I would also eat until I was sick, then move to the next thing and when the cycle is done eat the first one all over again. T0

    here are some things I can moderate (or even naturally stop now), but some things I wouldn’t dare to do this with. I actually tried it with potato chips and dip (and also chips and salsa…they’re my vices) this week and I gained about 3-5 pounds. Couldn’t get enough. I would probably gain a bunch of weight in the mean time of trying to satiate. It’s just WAY easier to keep them out of the house and only have them when supervision is around!

  86. Miz — Peanut Butter Pandemonium is vanilla ice cream with swirls chocolate and peanut butter with peanut butter cups mixed in. It is the yummiest ‘scream I have found!

  87. Glad I was done with my hot coffee before I read Marianne’s comment about rolling around in potato chips…I’d follow with a bath in chocolate fondue rather than french fries, though!

    Yep, I’d heard of this, but I think it was in the context of helping kids not have food issues. In that, if the kid can choose what they want during the family shopping, eat it whenever they want it, without having to worry about others eating up all their particular food items, then the kid doesn’t form issues with certain foods and even eventually makes good food choice over time. Haven’t tried it on Thing 1 and Thing 2, but we do generally insist that they have some “good for you” food before junk food.

    I don’t think this has worked well for me, though. I think that my adult life has been a series of binge-to-satiety, then clean eating because I’d had enough junk and felt yucky and KNEW better, then after awhile tasting junk, going “Oooo, yummy!” and going back into binge mode. (Thankfully, due to a lot of things I won’t bore y’all with, I think I’m finally growing out of this cycle.)

  88. My first instinct was to respond with a big ol’ NOPE, Not for me! But given time to think about it, I do believe this was conceptually how I tippytoed my way into healthier eating. The one difference was that I didn’t HAVE the foods in the house; I simply gave myself permission to buy them if I wanted them. And then I didn’t buy them. 🙂
    I suspect if I had, they’d have been eaten in abundance, if for no other reason than they are easily grabbed as I’m heading out the door.

  89. I have actually never heard of this before. It sounds interesting but I just don’t think it is something that would work for me. I am the type of person where if there is something I love in the house I end up eating it every day till it is gone. I feel like it calls me into the kitchen just to eat it. LOL

    But, I really can see your point like with the whole potty training thing. We did the sticker chart and I noticed as time went on my daughter would still go potty but would sometimes forget to even put a sticker on. So, I guess it would really depend on personality as to if this would work or not.

  90. Alas, I KNOW there are not enough hours in the day to consume the abundance of Hershey’s with Almonds on earth….and yet I would be willing to give it a good try.

    They just cannot be allowed in my pantry, in my house, in my sight. My arse thanks me for this.

  91. You look fabulous as always. 😉

    I wanted to write about how I sit on the toilet for hours expecting things too but that would be a lie. Talk about Dum Dums.

    I am too cheap (money) to fill my cupboards with all that I might want on an abundance (diet) kick. This sort of reminds me of Geneen Roth’s idea of eating whatever you want for as long as you want so that you get it in your pea-brain that it’s always there and you don’t have to consume the whole cake in one sitting because there will always be more cake etc or more of anything.

    This idea of having all that I want (food-wise) might have worked on me in my younger days but I’m old enough now to realize that if it’s out there, I can buy and eat it if I want it but I don’t have to fill my cupboards with it to be satisfied.

    I think the whole idea of an abundance diet would be to teach a person to have an awareness of their relationship with the food, and if they filled their cupboards stuffed with their faves, would this change their relationship with food and make them eat more consciously?

  92. I’ve never heard of this diet per se, but have heard of the general idea. Does it work? Perhaps for some, but definitely not for me.

    Just in listening to this video and reading the comments, I had an epiphany: I don’t seem to be an emotional eater anymore. Ohh, I’ve got my hangups, LOADS of them, but comfort eating, joyously, isn’t one of them any more.

    But when I WAS an emotional eater, this wouldn’t have done me any good at all. In fact, I tried, in limited fashion, to apply this to my life. I would keep chips on hand, thinking that by simply knowing they were there, I wouldn’t be tempted. The friterie (fry shop) was just a couple minutes away, so I reasoned I could get them any time I wanted. The result? I got them nearly every night. It wasn’t getting them nearly every night that finally stopped this behavior; it was realizing — really realizing — that eating this way was costing me my fertility, my health, and valuable years off my life.

    Many commenters have brought this topic up in relation to kids. We are an uber-healthy household. If you’d look in our cupboards, you’d wonder how in the heck my husband and I could be overweight. There’s nothing bad. There’s no sugar. I make everything from the yogurt to the cookies to the ketchup. Will my kids feel deprived and later in life go searching to fill the void? I certainly hope not. They get cookies, but we control what kind and how much sugar goes into them. At school and at parties we don’t apply our standards, we let our kids choose for themselves. More often than not my oldest (at 4) asks for a banana and bubbly water for a snack, rather than cookies and juice. I hope we’re doing the right thing.

    In another moment of reflection, my mom WAS rather deprived as a child. She grew up poor and skinny, and most likely malnourished. As a result, she always made sure that abundance WAS offered to her children. We had sodas and chips,and cookies and ice cream. And meat at every meal. Growing up on the Abundance Diet, I can tell you it didn’t work for me. It only led to a lifetime of weight issues and misplaced priorities.

  93. I know it would not work for me. Abundance of my favorites would only pack on more pounds. I could eat Frosted Brown sugar cinnamon pop-tarts, Oreos, milk & extra cheese laden slices of pepperoni pizza & drink ice cold Pepsi. everyday, all DAY! I know that I can have these when I want them, but have to keep them out of the house. Love of them hasn’t dimished in 20 years, don’t think it ever will.

  94. I’ve heard of another extreme version of this “diet”. Essentially, if you’re trigger binge food was M&Ms or something similar you would carry a big bag of them around with you constantly. That way you could have them at a moments notice. Eventually, the bag just becomes annoying/cumbersome because you know that they’re there and you don’t need them to be right beside you all the time not to feel deprived.

  96. I’m not sure this would work for me, especially because Pop Tarts and Oreos make my heart race (is that weird?), so even with midnight munchies I tend to be afraid of them.

    Quaker Mini Delights, however? I could eat those for daaays. Actually, I think I recall eating a 6-pack of 90-calorie bags once. Clean eating? Hell no. Tasty? Oooh yeah.

    😉

  97. Hey – thanks for coming by my blog awhile back. Enjoyed your facetime today – it’s always nice to actually see the person you read about, live and up close. And can I just say – rockin’ GUNS, mama – were you doing push ups in the womb?

    So on your question or “issue” – My gut reaction to that is always – “Oh God no – I could NEVER do that – I would be HUGE in a matter of DAYS…” Much like the responses of many of the other commenters. But then I started thinking about that – would I REALLY? Are we just not trusting our bodies and minds to make the right choices? I mean, if faced with mountains of pop tarts (oooh, the strawberry ones with frosting!!) would I REALLY eat those for every meal for weeks or would I eventually want a damned chicken breast and spinach? Based on what I know about my eating habits, I tend to think I might actually return to the healthier fare once I realized that a) the “good stuff” was there and consistently available; b) I didn’t have to eat it all gone so that I could “start fresh on Monday;” and c) that eating some of it didn’t mean that I was suddenly on an eating free for all that I could only end by “re-committing to health” and dieting excessively for a week until I snapped and had another free for all. You know, you’ve given me a lot to consider AND something to write about tomorrow on my own blog. Thanks. Where shall I send your pop tarts?

    I think we chicks need to examine this lack of trust we have in ourselves – Let’s all go back and read Geneen Roth’s “When Food Is Love,” okay?

    p.s. I have a potty training toddler, too – we are just now getting into the big boy underwear and last night, when he told me he had to go potty and he actually did, I gave him some Smarties (currently out of dum dums). I love candy as motivation – works every time!! Good luck.

  98. Like tricia, the knowledge that someone else might get there first has made me ridiculously obsessive regarding my foodstuffs, recently moving in with my sister who does all the eating and none of the shopping had led to me hiding and hoarding my sweets which can’t be too healthy a mindset.

    So, the abundance diet rather makes sense to me…

    Personally, I’m not sure how effective it would be as regards a specific food as there’s no “one” substance that makes me crazy, but generally, when I know I can have whatever I want, whenever I want, I get less of the crazy obsessive need to eat everything instantly because it be forbidden tomorrow (when the diet starts)…but tomorrow never comes, and it’s a whole load of binging that ensues.

    See, impending deprivation for me leads to a compulsion to eat everything in sight, so it makes sense that abundance eliminates that desire, no?

    Presently my kitchen cupboard is stocked with miniature dark chocolate biscuit bars and I have one every evening…it’s my treat for the day and knowing it’s there makes it easier to make healthy choices the rest of the day…it’s maybe not ideal, and maybe there’ll come a day when I’ll decide I don’t need one today (knowing I can till have one tomorrow), but I’m okay right now, as it’s a damn site healthier than not letting myself have a small luxurious vice only to indulge in something incredibly excessive to quieten the beast!

  99. one word: DANG.

    four words: SO MANY GREAT POINTS.

    five words: ID FORGOTTEN ABOUT GENEEN ROTH!

    nine words: I LIKE CARA NEED ONE TREAT PER DAY—–FO’SHIZZLE.

    Miz.

  100. I have never heard of this…but can totally see the logic behind it. I used to not buy chocolate or cookies to have at home.. so then when I had the chance to eat them, I went nutty and couldn’t really figure out why. Well duh, because I thought they were forbidden.

    Now that I’ve mentally decided I can eat what I want and not gain weight.. what I want to eat is healthy and when it’s not, I don’t want a whole box…just a taste.

  101. I’m not much of a binge eater, and odn’t really have any trigger foods. I usually try to keep a little of the foods around that I DO crave, and then, when I’m having a craving, I have a serving.

  102. A few licks and into the trash!?! Really? That hasn’t happened with our daughter yet. Although, I have seen this happen to me. I go through phases. For instance, I love cottage cheese and fruit. And at one point, I would buy tubs of cottage cheese at a time and eat it all the time. But after while, I notice I’d start letting it sit in the fridge, and when I went to the store, I realized I still had some at home uneaten. Now, I only eat it in moderation.

  103. I’m feeling the abundance thing in the dining hall here. so if i dont feel like ice cream after dinner, i dont have to have it lol. and guess what, no freshman 15 for me. rigorous daily exercise does wonders.

  104. Huh…interesting question! I’d have to say there’s no definitive answer — it depends on the person. Some people would eat and eat and eat the abundance food regardless of the bounty, and some people wouldn’t.

  105. Hmmm….well, I THINK I’ve done this from time to time on my own….like, in the past there have been days where I’ll eat a whole package of cookie dough. And surely I wouldn’t want ANY the next day, right? ‘Cause I’d be so sick? Unfortunately…..not the case. Now, maybe if that was all I ate, all day everyday….maybe the raw eggs would finally get to me. 🙂

  106. Wow, you really sparked interest with this question. BTW thanks for the visit and comment. AND, your wall color and light fixture behind you are the same as mine. Now to your question. I’ve never heard of the Abundance diet and no, I don’t think it would work for me. I think before I got sick of the things I love I would gain back the 67 lbs I’ve lost. I’ll just stick with WW and the 100DaysChallenge.

  107. So, I just had a mini-epiphany in the shower this morning.

    The Abundance Diet is exactly what happens with me and men!

    The more available a gentleman becomes, the less interested Cara is. Hmmm…

  108. reading your comments and thisclose to offering myself up as the ABUNDANCE TEST MIZFIT (have you seen the new! orange! double stuff for halloween? I know they are chock full of everythingbadforus and prolly glow in the dark—but still.)——–but Im not gonna.

    Ive learned enough about myself to know this isnt for me.

    (should you give it a go you *must* keep us all posted)

    and Cara? your comment made me think of that groucho marx quote….the one about not wanting to be a member of a club which will have him?

    food (or, more aptly, MEN) for thought.

    Miz.

  109. I think that it’s a great concept but, as you suggest, for specific personality issues.

    The thing is, we’ve probably all been on this merry-go-round long enough to know we each have very specific issues that trip us up in our eternal quest for health. 🙂 I know that there are a lot of people who struggle with a “paranoia of scarcity” – in that, if there are only six sausage biscuits in the freezer, they will want one every hour because, you know, what if someone else eats them? Or perhaps a better example is, say, pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving or Christmas. If that’s the only time of year you get it, it’s nearly impossible to tell yourself “I’m only going to have tiny slice” or “No, I had all that turkey and dressing, the pie is too much.” You KNOW it won’t be there tomorrow or in a week, so if you don’t eat it now, you won’t get it for another year. So you eat it, and you probably eat a lot of it.

    Whereas, if you knew there would be pie in the refrigerator every day, you’d say, “Nope, I’m done for now, I’ll just have some later.” And maybe you’d want it later, and maybe you wouldn’t.

    Only some people have that issue with everything, not just the seasonal treats. So for those people, I think this is a great concept. And honestly? I do have this issue. But I’m probably not a good candidate because I think it would take a LOT of retraining…and yeah, I’d be about 50 pounds heavier by the time it was done.

    Cause here’s the thing – when I was eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, I weighed 210 pounds. For about five years. I hit that weight and then I stopped gaining, because honestly, I wasn’t eating tons. I was eating bad stuff, but not that much – because I knew it would be there when I wanted it. But I had to eat it enough to get fat before I figured that out.

    Sigh. It’s a great concept. But like many great concepts, I am afraid it might be flawed in the execution. At least for me. 🙁

    V.

  110. I think that this is a really interesting topic. I have not heard of this before, but I can see how it could work for some people. I always like to tell my clients that they can eat whatever they want at first, but they have to count everything and stay in their calorie limits. If for some reason they go over, they have to count it. This way they see visually why they aren’t seeing results.

    In the end I find, with people that are really ready to change, that when they see how little cookies and ice cream they get in comparison to how much Veggies, Meats, Fruits, etc you are normally going to pick more quantity.

    I don’t think that people should have in their heads that they can’t eat something, they should just remember that is the spice of life. Really interesting post though Thanks for sharing.

    Fattygetsfit I used to get stickers from my mom too! Now when ever I make a list of things I need to get done I give myself a sticker when I complete it 🙂

  111. Late to the party, but wanting to chime in. 🙂

    Comment #82, Ann – everything she said. All of it. For serious.

    Second thing: I think this works especially well if you have some sort of disordered eating. And frankly, I think most of us have some disordered eating – it’s part and parcel of our culture. There are certainly a few who DON’T have weird food behaviors, and something like this would probably not work for them. (I didn’t believe that until I read these comments, but some of them made me think differently.)

    Speaking as a complusive eater/emotional eater/binge eater/and AND all of the above – doing that with a trigger food (jsut ONE or maybe TWO at a time) was extremely helpful. Because after a while, the food didn’t bury the emotion anymore. It lost its drug-like power. I remember one evening in particular, reaching for the ice cream (again) and realizing suddenly that I WOULDN’T FEEL ANY BETTER AFTER EATING IT. And I got so mad, so angry, so FRUSTRATED, that I hucked the pint across the kitchen. (Which made a BIG mess that was not fun to clean up. I don’t recommend ice-cream-throwing.) And then I sat on the kitchen floor and CRIED.

    But then? After the crying (and the cleaning)? I felt better. And I KNEW what was wrong. The thing buried in my psyche (under layers of ice cream and Nacho Cheese Doritos) that never quite got out into the light of day? GOT OUT. And then, I could see it, examine it, FIX it. It helped a lot.

  112. Here me is, late again (better late?) I do think there is something to this (although I love all food and can over-indulge in just about anything so I’d have to live at Super Target for this to work). However I think there is something to the scarcity=overindulging theory. We have friends who keep bowls of candy out at their house. When I come over to pick up my kids I’ll find them with their cheeks bulging with the sweets. They’ll ask, “how come they have the candy out?” It’s so naughty, so tempting. But my friend believes having it out all the time makes it less appealing. I tried this at home and my husband looked at me like I had two heads. I would like to try this theory again (with my kids… Ok and me too) because just because it’s there doesn’t mean we eat it. It’s a choice. And I’d rather that they start making those choices (based on what I’ve told them about healthy food/healthy bodies) than always feeling tempted (like me) because of its scarcity.

  113. Chick!! LOOK at your arms! I want arms like that! I am going to strength train RIGHT NOW.

    Okay about your topic. I, too, used dum dums to train my toddler! She just turned 3 and now she doesn’t care about them anymore either. Funny we had the same potty training experience with this!

    I read about the abundance thing in a Geneen Roth book many years ago. She wrote about having cookie dough for her dinner all week. Um, cookie dough is my trigger too. So I did it. I made huge batches of cookie dough and ate it all week. Sadly, I NEVER got sick of it, I just wanted more and more. I ate so much cookie dough my face was perpetually broken out, I was cranky, and I gained like ten pounds. Finally I decided I was a freak who would gladly eat cookie dough for every meal for the rest of my life until I weighed 500 pounds, so I had to stop.

    But yeah, apparently this does work for some people!

  114. It does make sense! Junk food was forbidden in my home growing up. If Dad did bring home a bag of chips or a box of cookies, they were hidden! It then became a mission for my brother and I to find the hidden goods and devour them before we could get busted. Had junk food not been so much of a novelty, I doubt we would have been sneaking cookies to our rooms. I can remember going to friends houses and seeing their cold rooms and thinking “My GD, if we had all of these chips, cakes, cookies etc, they would have been gone in an hour! How do they last here?”. The answer: It’s there.
    We always did have ice cream in the house, but because it wasn’t anything taboo, the container was often thrown out after severe freezer burn.

    We don’t want the things we can have without having to work for them.

    I’m not sure if I would make a diet of this, but I know for certain that there will be junk in my home as I do not want my children looking at it as a reward or a faux pas

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