As soon as you assign an emotional value to food, deeming it as ‘forbidden’ or a ‘reward’ food, you immediately make it more alluring. Food is just food. Some foods are more calorie-dense and some have less nutritional value than others but ultimately any food has the capacity to be stored as fat if you consume more of it than your body needs.
Eating sensibly isn’t about becoming ‘strict’; it’s about eating responsibly. It’s also not about the next four weeks but rather, the next four decades. You need to change your ‘diet’ mindset. The belief that you are being ‘good’ when you are simply giving your body the healthy food it deserves creates a good/bad or on-diet/off-diet dichotomy of thinking which can keep you trapped in a yo-yoing pattern for years.
Listen to your body – it knows what you need. Eat only when you are genuinely hungry and eat enough nutritious food to satisfy your body’s physical needs. When you change what you believe is ‘normal’ (your default setting), you will never have to diet again.
 

Craig Harper