This is an auxiliary post to my previous weight loss article that touches on a topic that I’m sure is important to a lot of people trying to lose weight, and became more important to me as I continued on to sustain my new found lifestyle.

Today’s topic is Feeding The Beast.  That tenacious little craving that’ll crop up from time to time and no manner of will power will make it go away.  Now when I lost the bulk of my weight I didn’t give in.  I wanted to though, but I didn’t.  I ate nothing sweet, nothing indulgent, nothing fun, for almost a year.   I was told that I was insane, and seeing as how this hard-nosed stick-to-itedness got me into legitimate arguments and fights with loved ones, I probably was a for a little bit.  Most people wont have that iron will, and if you have any kind of a social life it makes it umpteen times harder.

What I’ve learned is to “feed the beast”  To  throw the dog a bone on occasion to get it to crawl into its hole.  Now this sounds easy enough but if you approach it the wrong way it can spiral out of control.

Now with low carb this opens up an even bigger can of worms as your brain will give you much stronger cravings for carb laden foods.  As you reach your goals its easier to say “I did it, I can have a sandwich now” but what I find dangerous is that non-sweet carbs will very easily weasel their way back into your daily routine without you noticing.

Furthermore, even to a low carb veteran like myself, its very easy to forget that carbs aren’t good and that bread is ,basically, the same as sugar, dietarily speaking.  How they differ is how they make you feel.  Eating a sandwich is eating a meal.  It doesn’t feel extravagant like say, cheesecake.  The danger here is that you’ll feed the beast with your sandwich for lunch but not realize you’re doing so then go back again and feed it again with something you actually deem indulgent.

Once you realize this pitfall exists you can address it, and the way I address it is actually very preferable to most.  My answer is to eat whatever that one sweet thing you crave is.  Why?  Because it leaves a mark.  Its much easier to think “Oh I had some ice cream on Monday, I better stay away from the Starbucks Milkshake™ today”  vs “Oh I had some whole wheat bread for lunch Saturday, I better be mindful”  By pro-actively feeding the beast you’re not only giving the dog its bone to shut it up for a bit, but you’re setting yourself up to be more aware of your diet  in the days ahead.

Feed The Beast from brianr18 on 8tracks Radio.