A farewell to food

I have my first LighterLife meeting tonight and tomorrow I start the diet. Today has been a farewell to food. I've tried to eat things that I like but may never eat again. I had a full English breakfast this morning, a cookie frappaccino, a McDonald's Happy Meal and I bought some of my favourite chocolate caramel cookies. The funny thing is that I'm not crazy when it comes to eating. My indulgent frappaccino was a small one without whipped cream, because that's how I like it. My breakfast didn't include bacon or sausage. I'm not a super-size kind of girl. In fact, I don't think I've ever super-sized a meal. I guess I just eat more than I should.

Things that I know I do wrong when it comes to food:

1. Sometimes I eat when I'm not really hungry.

2. Sometimes I eat just for the pleasure of tasting and chewing.

3. Sometimes I eat out of habit or tradition (like popcorn at the cinema).

4. Sometimes I use food as a reward or a comfort.

So, I know I do all of these things. What I'm hoping to learn from this diet is how to find healthier alternatives to food for pleasure and reward and how to break the bad habits. I've picked a hell of a week to start. The first day of the diet is my ten year old's birthday. I'm not telling the kids about the diet. I figure if I just sit with them at meal times and have a drink, they probably won't notice. I can always make myself a plate and move the food around if I need to. Then on Wed - Thurs we're going away with friends to the seaside and on Friday I have afternoon tea to celebrate another friend's birthday. Yikes!

On Friday I've decided to have one sandwich and one scone and lots of tea. It will probably make the diet a bit harder with that little cheat but I'm not going to be draconian about it. My goal is to lose some weight and find some self control but I'm not going to make myself miserable in the process.