I had a revelation yesterday. I realized that the way I feel about dieting/food/calories is the way other people feel about money. And vice versa. For me, even when I was making a LOT less than I was now, there was never a time when I strictly budgeted. Yeah, I had an idea of what I could afford, but generally I managed to set my life up so that what I wanted to spend (and my natural fairly frugal self) meant that even if one month I spent a bit more than I should've, I had savings to cover it and maybe seeing a big bill made me go "ooh" and not spend quite so much for a few weeks. That's still how I am today--yeah, I have things synched up in Mint so I can occasionally make sure I'm not going over budget month after month, but I pretty much never am. And partly yes, that's because I make a decent salary, but like I said, even when I made a lot less (or was in college) that was never an issue--I had almost no money but I was also never one of the kids going "crap, my check is going to bounce and I have five dollars to last me until my parents send more!"
But I know that's not how most people are, and a lot of people budget down to the penny. And it's hard, and tiring, and they want to splurge, and they still HAVE to spend money and can't go cold turkey. And that's how I feel about dieting--I WANT it to be like how I spend money, where I can just eat what I want within reason, have occasional splurges, have occasional times when I think "I should cut back and eat healthy for a bit" and generally go on my merry way. But mostly I can't...that line of reasoning adds debt for some people and pounds for me.
...I haven't figured out what to DO about this, but it makes a lot of sense in my head.