On moderation versus abstention when it comes to food. While the column comes down in favour of abstention, I am more in the moderation camp; I like the occasional steak and desert for example, but minimize my red meat and sugar intake. But whatever works. Quote:
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, says: “Life is too short for me to have precious mental bandwidth taken up by ‘brownie now or brownie later? Big brownie or little brownie? Does this brownie count if it’s only a little piece of a brownie?’ Forget about it.”
In fact, Rubin can’t name a single person she thinks is actually succeeding at living a life of moderation. Her own solution: abstaining. In her new book, Happier at Home, she details how, rather than trying to eat a little bit of everything, she chose what bad stuff to give up completely. This included hors d’oeuvres and eating at children’s parties, and recently sugar. (Also crackers, but she fell off the cracker wagon.) Meanwhile, she guzzles diet soda like water, and doesn’t feel a tad guilty.
“It’s so much easier and more fun,” she says. “You’re not agonizing over it. Otherwise you just wear yourself out trying to make decisions and justifications.”
Why the tyranny of ‘everything in moderation’ sets us up to fail – The Globe and Mail.
