PQ - I guess ultimately whether your body thinks you're starving depends on how many calories you're eating vs. how many you're burning. Either way, the cheat meal isn't supposed to be a binge meal, just a time to eat whatever you want to until you are full. I haven't come to a final verdict on its effectiveness yet, but I'm going to give it a couple more weeks.

Proving that what other people think of me is none of my business.

I like the idea of saving that cheat experience for one meal a week. Turning the idea into reality ... ahhh, that's the challenge. Especially since I'm still in training and think I can eat whatever (within reason) I want.

But that's not really why I'm writing - I just wanted to say how much your notion of cheats often being disappointing rings true. I sometimes think I want that donut or cinnamon bun, but it's never worth it. And oddly, I never feel that way about food that's truly good for me - maybe because the anticipation is less, or maybe because nutritious food actually IS more tasty? Not sure. I do want to mention that last night, I swear I am not making this up, raw broccoli stems tasted sweet to me. (Not the florets, though - they're still bitter when raw.)

P.S. I've heard the pumpkin coffee at DD is awesome but don't want you do be disappointed if it is merely meh. :)

I'm trying to live on the 80/20 rule, where I eat "right" 80% of the time, and don't worry do much about the other 20%. It's interesting to see how much less I want and enjoy the "junk" stuff now that I've given myself permission to eat it without shame.

I'm finding, increasingly, that I only buy very small amounts of chocolate when I want a treat, because it has diminishing returns: the first few bites are fine, but if I eat a whole single-size bar, the last bite will be too rich and I'll feel slightly sickened.

Starbucks' sweet food is never as good as it looks, alas. Either it used to be better or my tastes have changed; not sure which.

PQ - I LOVE baked goods. I've been using the cheat meals to eat donuts and cake mostly. I went to Starbucks because I wanted to try the pumpkin latte and I knew it would only be available for a limited time.

So not pretty.

I'm not a fan of Starbucks pastries. That's too bad because their coffee is my favorite, but their pastries always seem dry (in the case of scones) or greasy (in the case of cookies and muffins) and too sweet. I absolutely love the reduced-fat cranberry-orange scone at Caribou Coffee and I have one every Friday morning for breakfast. I look forward to it all week. And while I suppose the anticipation is better than the actual scone, and the experience of eating it is definitely over way too soon as you describe, I like it so much that it's not a letdown, so the whole experience (looking forward to eating it and then actually eating it) is pleasant for me.

Speaking of pastries and regarding your donut post, DD all the way! :) Krispy Kreme seems to feel the need to put glaze on everything. As a pre-planned birthday treat this year I got two Old-Fashioned donuts and a large black coffee at DD for breakfast. The flavors of the cake donuts and coffee together are just perfect. If that combo were somehow good for me, I'd eat it 3 meals a day. :)

My fat girl cred is intact because I love donuts so much (whereas many fat people don't even like them, yet are still tarred with the same media stereotype that we must all eat a dozen a day) yet is slightly in question because I find the glazed ones gross and way too sweet.

Still haven't, yet. I'm hoping it'll still be there when I get to my goal weight of 120lbs.

PQ - Oh, I thought I'd do a shameless plug of my new blog while I'm here. I've never done one before so any advise is nice! :)

http://weight-in.blogspot.com/

Re: your body going in to starvation mode....that occurs when you don't eat. I do eat several smaller meals (if I want to fill up on veggies I can eat large meals) throughout the day to get my metabolism burning. As long as I keep on eating and don't go more than 3 hours without eating, then I'm fine, and my blood sugar stays even. You have to be committed to that kind of lifestyle though, but it sure gets the weight off and makes your energy soar. ;)

Those are my thoughts. Genuinely love yourself a little bit more each day and keep on doing what works for you...if it's healthy and gives you awesome energy then that's the best. :)

Isn't that like saying, "The soup was wet"? What are scones supposed to be like?

PQ - I can't recall ever having a scone before, so I have no idea what they're supposed to be like. If they were going for dry they did a good job!

I think that, in general, the scone situation illustrates the fact that the American style of baking involves a lot more fat and sugar than the European style. Their things will taste dryer, denser, and less sweet than ours. I think Americans have to try really hard to actually LIKE scones! :)

Thanks for another great post, PQ.

I totally know what you mean about how food can look better than they taste. I hate it when that happens to me. It makes me feel that I wasted my calories, time, and money. Personally, I only like pastries from Filipino bakeries or homemade.

PQ - Does it go up even higher if I tell you I listened to that episode while walking on the trail? NPR and cardio, woo-hoo!

Totally agree with you there! I have a pet theory - restaurants don't spend much effort on desserts as they figure that by the time you eat it, you'll have drunk so much you'll have lost your critical faculties.

Well, that's the theory...

:)