OK, so bear with me. I'm still skeptical of some of the scientific theories surrounding CALP, but open-minded. I've come to believe that a good part of it is in tricking the mind. You train yourself in your first two meals of the day to be very restrictive. So all day long you're congratulating yourself on how well you're doing.

Then along comes your golden hour and reward meal. Well, who wants to blow it now? Why chow down on all kinds of high-carb junk when you've been so on-plan all day long? Certainly not me!

And there's a lot to be said with the permission thing. Several years ago, I read a book called "Overcoming Overeating" (I've posted on this before). They tell you to first identify your biggest trigger food. Then go out and buy more than you could possibly eat in a week. I chose Suzie Q's. I bought 3 boxes of 12 each. Then you give yourself permission to eat as many as you want, as often as you want. And if your supply starts getting low, go out and buy even more.

It has nothing to do with eating so many you get sick of the sight of them. It has everything to do with giving yourself permission to eat them. Once they're no longer a forbidden food, their hold on you is broken. If you know, deep down, that you have permission to buy more whenever you want, you don't feel compelled to buy them.

In a weird way, it worked for me. I did this with both Suzie Q's and Doritos maybe 5 or 6 years ago. I haven't had a Suzie Q since, and have only had Doritos on, I think, two occasions -- and then in quite moderate portion sizes.

So I think CALP is kind of like that. As soon as I gave myself permission to eat anything I wanted during that hour -- each and every night -- the spell was broken. Like yesterday as I was driving home. I was thinking that there's nothing special in the house to splurge on for a luscious dessert. I thought about stopping at the grocery store and buying something sinfully delicious. But what? As hard as I tried, I couldn't come up with anything that sounded good.

This is all very interesting to me.

Thoughts?