I think "smaller portions" + "more exercise" - "snacking" = "slightly more feasible for me".

I lost 30 lbs a couple of years ago on a severe version of this. Tiny meals. I could eat what I wanted to, but the each meal had to be limited to five bites. It was basically fasting with snacks--and it was given to me by my crazy doctor. It worked, though, and once I got to my goal weight, keeping portions small (since I had been used to eating basically nothing for a couple of months) was simple. I gained back 20 lbs since my surgery, so I am going on a modified version of the diet. Very small breakfast and lunch (like a cup of fruit salad), and a normal but healthy dinner. I wants to be back into my size eight jeans by Spring.

She tells me the whole thing about how you stop craving things and you feel full with less food and you have more energy, but I think it's a myth, like those endorphins you supposedly get from exercising.

Cravings sort of go away. Or maybe you just learn to manage them.

Week Two (?) of my diet I was craving pizza. It was the craving that would not stop. I dreamed of pizza. I went online to figure out the least caloric way I could indulge my pizza craving. (A single pizza roll would have been 35 calories. Of course, I would have to have bought a box, taken out the single pizza roll and then thrown the rest of the box away before I even got into my car.)

It took at least a week for the craving to pass as Monique can attest. Since then, I still think, "Oh, pizza sounds good," but I'm not consumed with thoughts of cheesy, saucy goodness anymore.

In fact, my first day on K-Ville, as I was leaving the office, one of the assistants was unpacking dinner (pizza) and he held up a slice -- INCHES AWAY FROM MY FACE -- and offered it to me. Somehow, I managed to back away from it and leave. Perhaps, flee would be more accurate.

This is not to say I'm always good. I've seriously cheated half a dozen times now and unseriously cheated a lot more than that. The serious ones came when I was out in the real world.

I dream of a life in Maintenance.

As for the exercise thing, I think it varies from person to person. Personally, I do have more energy and feel better now that I'm working out. But it's not a "high." In fact, I read a thing the other day that talked about the myth of the high and that most people will never experience that.

ETA:

Very small breakfast and lunch (like a cup of fruit salad), and a normal but healthy dinner.

HA! See, you illustrate the differences between people! I've learned that I need the opposite. I need to front load my calories to have more in the morning and early afternoon and then taper off as the day progresses.

Happy New Year to everyone! I am off soon for my "country home." (Okay, my friend's home.)

I have had the endorphin high, but only after hours of hiking at a fairly brisk pace. But I am always inevitably in the endorphin high place when I am also in the so tired that you can twist your ankle by tripping on a blade of grass place. So it sort of balances out.

The first few weeks I go off sugar I'll have anxiety dreams that I'm drinking kool-ade and can't stop and am fucking up my diet.

After that I still want it (and all its simple carby friends) but not nearly as much as I want them when they are part of my diet.

I love my MMA classes and will crave them and will get cranky when I miss them, but a really hard workout doesn't give me a rush so much as relax every muscle in my body and leave me completely limp. Which I really really love.

Where's bon? FotC are on Terri Gross right now! And yes, IFG!

Ha! I assume that's a rerun, because I totally bought that from iTunes. The story about the threesome makes me laugh and laugh.

The performer was mud ugly and all the hookers by the door were glaring at us.

yeah, they don't like it when the patrons are prettier than they are.

I have actually experienced the mythic endorphin rush. But it's a rare thing.

I had it one time. I got to the end of my route, and didn't want to stop, so I made another loop. It was nice.

The first few weeks I go off sugar I'll have anxiety dreams that I'm drinking kool-ade and can't stop and am fucking up my diet.

Oh god. I thought this was just me. Shortly after the pizza thing, I started having dreams where I would eat something, by mistake, and then remember I was on a diet and freak out. It was like, "I can't even cheat in my DREAMS."

you crazy people with your different things work for different people stuff.

I am starting on a smaller portions of everything except veggies habit and will also start exercising (haven't dedicated time to that in a good 4 years) in about a week. I hoping for some weight and size loss, but mostly for feeling better.

I will have very elaborate dreams about food when I get hungry when I'm asleep. Sadly, I cannot eat when I first wake up. I'll also have mega-frustrating dreams in which my attempts to get up, showered and dressed are all kinds of thwarted right before I wake up.

No wonder I hate waking up. Everything in my head is gearing me up for frustration.

Oh god. I thought this was just me. Shortly after the pizza thing, I started having dreams where I would eat something, by mistake, and then remember I was on a diet and freak out. It was like, "I can't even cheat in my DREAMS."

Sister!

I don't even like kool-ade IRL.

There is a pizza place in my neighborhood with whole wheat crusts and small slices. When I'm in bad shape I'll have a piece along with some other protien things so I don't get that icky blood sugar spike. It usually does the trick. I think the whole pizzaria aspect helps with the knock out of the craving.

If people are killing me at work with pizza I'll tell myself I can have the whole wheat if I'm still suffering when I get home, but I usually forget by then. Between that and the Guylian sugar free 70% cocoa chocolate I whip out when other people are having really nice deserts its pretty managable to stay on track.

(Can you tell I'm giving myself a pep talk? Good Girl starts again January 2nd and is hardcore until Valentine's Day.)