Call it what you will, but one of the essential keys to successfully living a glutton free life is your own resolve to stay the course. Resisting temptations, ignoring urges, forcing yourself to get out and move -- it all takes willpower. The best laid exercise plans, the healthiest lifestyle choices, the most fool-proof trendy diets -- all are worthless without your own will to accomplish your goals.
At 3:00 in the afternoon when your stomach's growling and you really want that bag of Doritos and a crisp, cold, sweet Mexican Coke -- you have to be strong and resist. Drink some water instead. Those complimentary donuts that someone brought to the office? Just say 'no'. The Sour Cream Lemon pie that was specially prepared for Easter Sunday? OK, you can have a small piece of that, but you'd better cut those calories out somewhere else.
Asking for the "glutton free" options at your local Cheesecake Factory or Claim Jumper restaurant isn't going to get you very far -- it is up to you to either choose healthy menu options, or divide your meal in half at the start and take the rest home. If you find yourself at Red Robin craving a burger, ask for a side salad in place of fries -- and figure out how many calories were in that burger, because you will need to give up eating something else to compensate for it.
Of course, choosing a restaurant with healthier menu items is a better idea, if you must go out. Grilled salmon and vegetables is almost always a better option than a fattier, higher calorie hunk of beef; but it requires willpower to order the fish, because a big, juicy steak would surely taste better. At that very moment, when flipping through the menu and deciding what you will order, you determine whether or not you will succeed at losing weight, lowering your cholesterol, keeping your blood sugar in check, reducing your sodium intake, and eating a balanced diet. No gimmicks. No preset program. Just you making a choice.
No sure-fire, fool-proof, be-all end-all diet needed. No revolutionary, cutting edge scientific break-through. Just follow the same wisdom that has been around since the book of Proverbs was written thousands of years ago -- don't be a glutton. It's that simple. It's that difficult.
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