There is hope
The first time I ate an apple after being on SS+, I got that massive sugar high. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to eat them anymore but I realised I'd trained myself to know I could just have one apple, but yet I was sure I couldn't have just one biscuit.
The mind has a lot to answer for
Once I hit goal this time around, I set up a few rules if I wanted to introduce a new food. They were basically as follows, partially inspired thanks to the book Eating Less, the very wise KD and lot of foot work working out what does and doesn't work for me.
1) If I had a snack, at first, I had to eat it at different times of the day so I knew I wasn't just eating (whatever the food was) at a certain time of day.
2) If I wanted another, I had to break the taste first with a cup of tea or something different. This made a massive difference to me
3) I had to make sure I'd taken enough time for my main meal to digest. I exercise a lot so there are times that I am hungrier than normal.
4) Believing I could just have one. I was quite sure like a lot of you that there were a few things I was going to have to ban, and truth be told, now I choose not to eat them now because I don't want to but believing I was in control of food and not the other way around made a very big difference.
5) Keeping an eye on the time. If I am close to a meal, then the snack needs to wait until after that meal.
6) Using the scale as a guide and nothing more. Sugary high carb stuff tends to be less dense so the next day when I jumped on the scales they may not have budged but I couldn't use that as an excuse to have another one that day. Sadly, it's the high fibre more dense stuff that will show up on the scales faster. Just to make things more confusing
7) Thinking through the implications of what I want to eat. If I am going to eat the muffin because I am hungry and will still feel good at myself it's okay. If I want to eat the muffin but I'm not feeling good at myself and will probably feel worse after I've eaten it, it's not happening. Feeling better about myself is an important trade off.
Chocolate wasn't my downfall though - it was the savoury stuff but I still needed to implement the same rules.
Now a few months on, I am a little more aware and can make the decisions quite easily. If I have indulged, I'll keep an eye out for the next few days just to make sure I'm back on track.