Cheetos and Dark Chocolate

So, I'm learning a little something about myself...I really need to work on my self-discipline when it comes to food and "small treats".  

While on vacation (and for even a few days afterward) I had several run-ins with guilty-pleasure foods.  I told myself that I would NOT over-indulge...just a little taste to satisfy a craving.  But these foods, they taste sooooo good.  When a couple of Cheetos becomes a full cup of crunchy deliciousness, or a few squares of dark chocolate somehow turns into an entire bar...*sigh*. 

I do love dark chocolate...so I'm not shocked there.  But, I don't even love Cheetos and I still failed to control myself there.  There's something comforting, even pleasurable about fat, sugar, and junk food.  What is it? 

Well, I went looking for answers...and they exist.  Take a look at this NY Times article "You Really Can’t Eat Just One, and Here’s the Reason" .  In short it says that "Big Food" producers have spent almost a century formulating their products to have the correct concentration of fat, sugar, and salt in their foods to create maximum "bliss" in the pleasure centers of your brain.  It does, in fact, give you a little high and makes the food potentially addictive. 

I've also read that because, when humans were hunter-gatherers, calorie dense food was sparse, and we had to work continually to find food, our brains were programmed to eat as much as possible whenever food was available.  Some theorize that we simply haven't evolved past that yet, but food (and much more calorie and nutrient dense food, at that) has become very easy to get.  In fact, we hardly have to work at all to get it. 

So what is the solution?  For me, it's temporarily avoiding these foods and hoping that, with time, I will acquire the necessary discipline to be able to eat just a little of a treat. 

Thanks to all of my cheating while on vacation, when I went back to Medifast upon returning home, I ended up having to suffer through my body getting back into Ketosis again. Yes, moodiness, headaches...yuck!  I made the cheats feel not-worth-it! 

I've also decided that living in a house where no one else is participating in Medifast is hard.  They are eating "normal" food, that I like...and usually I have to prepare it for them.  Some days it all but kills me not to eat it.  I want it so bad!  I have three small children, though...I can't expect them to fend for themselves, while I drink a shake. 

So, I'm taking it in stride and figuring that abstaining from these foods, while I cook them, may help me build that necessary aforementioned discipline.