I'm a world champion sweets craver, and am still fighting the binge war (and sometimes losing), and I have found that the most important thing that I can do for myself is portion it out. I used to eat straight from the ice cream carton, or have the whole cake on a dish in front of me, or the whole package of cookies, and that only encouraged extreme overeating. And feeling really icky afterward, and struggling with blood sugars for many hours because of slow stomach emptying. So I'm working on serving myself out a reasonable sized portion, and then putting the rest AWAY. As in out of sight. But then, I'm an out of sight, out of my mind person! But really, if I don't see it, it's not nearly so much of a temptation as when it's right in front of me.
Yesterday, I tried to eat reasonably all day, with protein, fruit, vegetables and bread, but I was NOT satisfied. Not satiated. And all I could think of was sweets. So I went out and bought a half gallon of ice cream, and brought it home. And portioned it in a medium-size dish and ate it. It DID satisfy me, but the real victory was eating it and then STOPPING. I had enough, and did not need to go get a second serving, although I had given myself permission to do that. And I was able to control my blood sugar within reasonable limits, too, even if not perfect.
Also, I am a bit thinner, not that it shows, but my size is appropriate for my age (which is a body image issue I'm working on). I think that's the hardest part of all this. When I see all the beautiful young women who think they're fat, it drives me crazy, because they're NOT. They just have distorted body image. But that distorted body image is SO hard to change, and I do understand that it is stressful for them to have gone up in size when they start eating appropriately. But size does NOT define beauty -- and I think we should put that on our mirrors to look at every day. And eating appropriately, INCLUDING a little bit of sweets is appropriate. :-)
