Hi Kelly, welcome to the TDC from another newbie. Don't despair - none of us are 100% perfect. Just hang in there and give yourself some time to explore what works and what doesn't work for you. For some folks, sticking rigidly to a particular plan is the best way; others like me can take the best of what we find in all plans and make it custom fit. You know yourself better than anybody else would, after all. The main thing is to get into the mindset that the HC stuff is not good for you and should be avoided as much as possible. For me, looking at is as a health issue as well as a weight gain one seems to make it easier to say no.

I hear you on the family reunions though - the DH's family is big and they all live in the area. They used to get together for just about every holiday, and each time it was a food blowout - torment for me because there were so many good tasting, tempting dishes and most of them were HC. You could go around the table and put just a dab of this and that on the plate and still wind up filling it twice. I just had to get past the mindset that it was necessary to have even a taste of everything - I mean how often have you taken stuff just because it's Aunt Elsie's specialty and not because you really like it? Been there/done that, got the waist size to show for it too. Now I can go to those gatherings and just be choosy about what I eat and have a good time without all the stress. And of course I always bring something LC as my contribution - that way I know I'll have something healthy and satisfying to munch on. But I don't knock myself out about it - if I want a bit of something HC that I might not see again for months, I'll probably have it and get it over with. I just make sure I don't go overboard with the serving, or take a whole bunch of tiny portions of this and that! But you'd be surprised at how many times I've just looked at something and said forget it because it's not worth the price I'll have to pay later. Eating LC consistantly will do that for you - you can resist temptation a lot easier and really be choosy about your food. It feels so good to be able to step away from food and not have it haunting me all the time. I cook things for my family I won't eat and that doesn't bother me, and even my old nemesis ice cream (especially mint chocolate chip) doesn't even enchant me anymore. I move it all the time in the freezer when I'm hunting for my hamburger patties or individually wrapped portions of cube steak or chicken. And I'm a life-long foodaholic and sneaky comfort-eater, so if I can do it, I bet you can too!