Great advice !! Thanks for sharing. In Islamic tradition we have the rule of 1/3: filling your stomach with 1/3 food, 1/3 water and 1/3 air. Not that many are following that rule though … understandable, given the lack of education nowadays.

I have pretty much eliminated desserts from my diet. I admit to craving them from time to time, but I rarely act on those cravings because I have learned that whatever sweet treat I am fantasizing about rarely lives up to my expectations of its deliciousness. However, at the moment, I am craving a Baby Ruth and thinking I might be mistaken to discount it. LOL

I agree with you 100% and I can pretty much eat whatever I want because of it. I stick to high-quality (aka satisfying) desserts and only take a few bites. I love it

About a year and a half ago I started educating myself about nutrition and eating because for several years I had continuously been slowly gaining weight. I was doing everything I was told (by society, media, USDA food pyramid, RDAs) was healthy, and over about 5 years I put on 30 lbs. How could this be? I didn’t eat fast food ever, I ate “healthy”, and I exercised. In hindsight, I knew what the average American knows about nutrition, which is unfortunately very little. This article touches on my first “discovery”… modern American portion sizes are ridiculously huge. The second discovery was the significant delay until satiety is perceived, and therefore the importance of allowing satiety to be perceived with proper sized portions. The following 3-4 months saw my weight gradually decrease by 30 lbs back to a BMI of 21.0 (with no additional exercise) where it still remains.

My personal contribution to the discussion of managing cravings is to take very small amounts of desserts/sweets. A good friend of mine shared this tactic with me. The idea is that the first few bites of a really great dessert are awesome and satisfy my huge sweet tooth. All the rest of the bites to finish a large dessert serving don’t contribute to satisfying my sweet tooth, inevitably leave me feeling a little bit sick, and contribute significant amounts of calories and fat to my daily intake. Lesson learned. I now take dessert portions that are about 3 bites. My sweet tooth is satisfied, I don’t feel sick afterward from excess sweetness, and I don’t have to go running for 2 hrs to burn off that extra 500+ calories I would have needlessly ate.

Last comment on this subject… Our bodies are very efficient at intaking and burning calories. A huge cinnamon roll (say 600 calories) can be eaten in 5 minutes. How much effort and time exercising does it take to burn 600 calories? Of course it depends on the exercise, but say 90-180 minutes. So 5 minutes of eating gives fuel for 90-180 minutes of continuous moderate exertion exercise. My perspective has changed from “denying myself pleasure” by not eating excessively to “saving myself hours of mandatory exercise every day” to maintain caloric intake/expenditure equilibrium