Once upon a time, my Dad told us about a book he read where the author said he was inspired to give thanks for everything, especially the ‘bad’ or challenging things in his life. So, my Dad tried this out one day when he was driving down the main commercial street in his neighborhood. This street had a traffic light at nearly every block and, as was usually the case, he was hitting every red light. He started saying, “thank you for the red light, thank you for the red light, thank you for the red light,” at every corner. Pretty soon, instead of being frustrated and angry, he was laughing!

No matter what food plan we’ve chosen to follow, whether it’s a strict diet that eliminates certain types of food, or a plan that allows everything in limited portions, at some point we find that we deprive ourselves of some type of food. We seem to have no self-control or ability to stop when it comes to that particular food. Quite often, we use that food as a reward for reaching a milestone weight, or for having done something over and above our normal exercise routine.