The benefits of not having it all

For the last couple of weeks, I've been following the Diets don't Work approach to losing weight, and I've been having a great time. The main principles of the book are 1) you eat whatever it is your body is asking for at that moment; 2) you only eat when you are hungry; 3) you stop when you are no longer hungry, ie. before you feel full.

As you can expect, this involves dealing with the issues that make one overeat. In my case, emotional issues are only a small part of the reason for my overeating at the moment. The main problem for me is that I looove food. Put me in front of a buffet, or a lovely Christmas dinner and I want to sample everything. Bob Schwartz (the author) tells us, however, that if we eat the way naturally thin people do, then we should only eat those things that are a 10 (on a scale of 1 out of 10) for us.

This got me thinking and I've realised that this is an approach that I have to life in general. Life is pretty much like a buffet and my tendency is to want to have everything that it has to offer. Whether it's a book catalogue (or any kind of catalogue for that matter), activities for my children, any kind of store, the restaurants in a city (I note every restaurant that I drive past and think, I must try that out), email lists, toys for my children (you should see their playroom) and many more things that I just can't think of right now, I want to sample everything that they have to offer.

This feeling of wanting and being afraid of missing out on something has so permeated my life that my eating habits are just one expression of it. I've started realising that, as with food, It's okay not to have everything in life. I will just go for the things that are really important for me and hopefully that will make my life a richer experience.