Hi Carbcutter

First of all, congratulations on getting through that evening as well you did!

And yeah, it was me who said don't sweat the small stuff... but I also say don't underestimate what you're trying to achieve up there! Breaking carbohydrate addictions and habits is hard enough on most folk... let alone whilst living in Scotland (I say this as a woman who had to go through giving up smoking whilst living in the East End of Glasgow!).

Personally I'd have packed an awful lot more to eat whilst you were in the cinema so you didn't feel so much like you were missing out... and so you weren't anything like so hungry when you got to the Pizza Hut, so genuinely didn't want much to eat.

I was brought up with "waste not want not" (we weren't allowed to leave the table till our plates were clean... I was stuck there for four hours once! ) too, but that was just our mums misguided way of doing their best with the understanding of life they had. It's hard to break out of, but I'm betting if you ask yourself each time you hear that voice in your head which she'd prefer - a clean plate or a healthy son - over time you can re-program your thinking.

Likewise if your kids understand that sometimes it comes down to a choice of Pizza Hut or healthy dad (obviously at this point, you give them "that" look so they understand which choice to pick! ), it might help them to make life easier for you too. Especially if you can think of something they love doing (football or whatever) that they can do with you as a "thank you" for helping you eat the way that will keep you fit enough for that to be an option.

As for films... our nearest (and, frankly, inexcusably bad!) cinema is 20 miles or £6.60 each by train away. You're talking about £30 all told just for the two of us to see a film! I think not!!! Unless the company are having an outing (in which case we get a lift from a mate up the road), it's DVDs and eDonkey downloads all the way! Haven't done so badly... that made for two films and a whole seven hour, three part US mini-series over the weekend!

Ach, I don't post anything all weekend and the first thing I write turns in to an essay! I'll whisht now! But I do think you should remember to afford yourself some pride in how incredibly well you got through that, rather than worrying about the small steps you might have done wrong. (And maybe re-eductate your kid's understanding of "treats" so they think more long term and stop eating stuff to give them obesity and diabetes!)