Susie and Johnny were playing on the seesaw in the park.  Because Johnny was so much bigger than Susie, his side of the seesaw seemed to spend more time on the ground. He didn’t feel it was fair that Susie should be enjoying the exhilaration of being suspended up in the air while he was going nowhere. They definitely were out of balance.

You may ask what has this to do with eating.  Too many people are on a seesaw of unhealthy eating.  In an attempt to lose weight or eat healthier, they believe they have to swear off all their favorite foods.  They reason that their favorite foods (which always seem to be fattening) don’t belong in a nutritionally-sound plan. Goodbye to cake, to chocolate, to steak, to chips, to …. Yet, as soon as they have deprived themselves of these foods, hoping that willpower will help them out, they have set themselves up for the inevitable binge.  Then, feeling ashamed, they try to repent by drastically under-eating. Talk about being out of balance.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, appreciate that your favorite foods can go hand in hand with a healthy diet.  What it takes on your part is a little planning.  Let’s say you’re going to your friend’s birthday celebration dinner, which, of course, will include cake.  From past experience you know your friend loves to serve rich, gourmet foods.  With that knowledge, you can plan ahead by eating foods for breakfast and lunch that are low in fat and calories, banking the extra calories and grams of fat for dinner and dessert.  Then you can have your cake and eat it too! 

No need for guilt.  You’ve kept what you’ve eaten for the day in balance.  For those meals that arise unexpectedly that you couldn’t plan for and so have already eaten a good portion of your daily fat and calorie allowance, try choosing the lower-fat/lower-calories selections or eat smaller portions.  The bottom line is how your day or even week ended up overall.  Were you pretty much on target for your nutritional needs each day, like balancing on a seesaw?  If so, award yourself a gold star.

You may find that the lower-fat/lower-calorie versions of your favorite foods are just as pleasurable.  You can save those fat grams and calories for something else.  Here are some examples: