On Moderation

Last Friday afternoon I made these no-bake peppermint patties by Frankenstein-ing a few recipes from This Rawsome Vegan Life together and making a few moderations of my own. And they were awesome. I made about 12 cookies and managed to eat 10 (saving one for Jeremy and one for my sister) of them within the span of 12 hours.

I’m pretty good with being disciplined when I have firm boundaries. For example, if I’m doing a Whole30 and know that dark chocolate is off the table (and out of my mouth) for a full 30 days it’s not much of a problem. I know I’ll have cravings but I also know that I can’t give in to them. But after my month of clean eating is up, it becomes a daily battle to keep myself from eating an entire bar of the stuff – every. single. night. The question of “Do I have one more piece or no?” and the restraint (or indulgence) that follows almost becomes more struggle than the joy of eating some awesome chocolate is worth.

And on that note … since having Fox I only enjoy a glass of wine (or two max) once a week. But I’ve found that it’s not quite as enjoyable, tasty, or comforting as my daily “wind down” glass was pre-pregnancy. I suppose the daily ritual of getting cozy with a bottle of Malbec may have been what took the edge off even more so than the actual wine itself. Plus now when I imbibe, even just a little bit, I feel wrecked just hours later. Again, it just hardly seems worth it.

I’m beginning to think I suck at moderation. For as much as I’d like to think of myself an anything-goes free-spirit, I actually do much better within boundaries – even if they’re self-imposed. What about you? Are you good with moderation? Or do you prefer to have a clear line in the sand?