Healthy Lifestyle - Breakthrough

I don't want to call my new healthy eating habits a "diet" since I am looking for a lifestyle change, not a quick weight loss fix.  I started this new "life" the second week of January (2012) and it's been great so far.  I've stuck to my chopped salad for lunch every single day this past week (Mon-Fri and still loving it), and I've ended each day under 1,200 consumed calories for the last two weeks - even when DH and I had dinner plans!  And lastly, I've lost 6 pounds!  So to motivate myself, I decided early on that I would allow one freebie day a week or every two weeks (depending on how the week went) where I would not limit my calories and not even guilt myself for it since I wouldn't track it on MFP.  This may seem a little counter-productive, and yeah yeah yeah, moderation is always best, but I knew just having such a day would motivate me.  And it worked!  But today is my "free" day, and I'm not really enjoying it.  Let me explain. 

While grocery shopping on Sunday, I decided to buy one of my favorite Korean snacks.

They used to only sell these in small packs (maybe 10-20 chips in a bag), but a few years ago they came out with these larger, "BIG-SIZE" bags.  Before you judge, practically half of the bag is air...but still, the bag itself is huge.  So back to my story.  I picked up a bag and due to limited cabinet space issues we are currently facing - it has sat unopened on my kitchen counter this entire week.  If you only knew how much I love these, you'll know it was torture.  Because of this little (big) bag, I've been looking forward to my Saturday Free Day since Sunday night!  So finally Saturday rolls around and I didn't want to open the bag.  Why?  Well in all the years I've eaten it, I've never bothered to look at the nutrition facts.  And then I did. Today.  Let's just say that consuming the whole bag would be more than a whole day's worth of calories. sigh.  But finally, mid-day, I decided to give myself a break and opened the bag.  I only ate 10.  And I've tracked everything I've eaten today.  Not really a freebie day, is it?

My point is, when making a big lifestyle change, you have to relax the rules a little.  If I told myself I can never eat the chips again, I would've eaten the whole bag by now.  Because I know I'll be OK if I eat 5 or 10 when I'm craving it, I don't feel deprived.  The fam and I are celebrating my dad's birthday tonight, so I may splurge calorie-wise by ordering some yummy steak or other equally delicious entree.  But I know I won't want the accompanying baked potato or french fries or sour cream, etc.  It feels good to know that just two weeks of healthy eating has contributed to healthy thinking too.  I think that deserves another reward!