Yesterday was supposed to be a fasting day. It was not. I kept feeling this persistent “irritation” in my stomach (“hunger” isn’t the right word for it), and I was pretty lethargic as well. I went to Whole Foods specifically to get apples and cheese for the weekend—and I came home with apples, mandarin oranges, red grapes, and cheese.

My additional purchases were not a terrible mistake (it’s not like I bought ice cream or pizza). Oranges and grapes contain a lot of water and fiber, so their glycemic load isn’t terrible. I planned to spread their consumption over the weekend, too. This plan, however, was foiled.

Food availability is a challenge for me. If food that I enjoy is around, I’ll eat it. This has always been the case. When I was a kid, my Halloween candy never lasted long. I have an older brother, and I was always amazed at how he was able to eat only a moderate amount of candy per day, whereas I would eat as much of it as I could as soon as I could. Even when I was a teenager, this was my tendency. I remember being given a 6-pack of those incredibly addictive Reese’s peanut butter eggs for Easter when I was 17. They were gone before the end of the day (I am a shameless sugar fiend).

So, while the bounty from Whole Foods wasn’t sugar-laden candy or chocolate, it still presented a challenge because it was available a day BEFORE I planned to start consuming it. Could I resist temptation? I could not. While I didn’t consume all of the oranges, grapes, and cheese in one sitting (I left the apples alone), they were all gone by the end of the day.

I’m not very good at portion control or stopping eating when I start to get full. I love the taste of my favorite foods; I savor them. It’s the taste that drives me to eat more than I should. I plow ahead even when I can feel myself getting full just chasing the taste of things. And I have very acute senses of smell and taste, which makes my eating experience very intense. It’s hard for me to stop eating when I relish the taste of things.

I was afraid to check the scale this morning, but I’m committed to weighing in every day of this project. To my great relief, I didn’t gain a significant amount of weight. I obviously didn’t lose the weight I’d planned to lose when I designated yesterday a fasting day, but limiting myself to “good” food full of fiber and water (except for the cheese) rather than indulging in junk food primarily full of sugar (without any fiber and water) resulted in a very mild gain that I can live with.