Is it really that simple?

Something amazing happened last night … and again today.

A preface: I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve been talking with Jenn from Live Well Fit Now. We’ve been exploring — well, lots of things. Among them is intuitive eating. As she pointed out, I’ve been on some kind of “diet” for years, and I’m tired. Tired of counting carbs, calories, points … tired of writing down every bite I eat (hence why I’ve stopped tracking).

So we’ve been toying with the principles I’ve read about before. Eating what you want, when you want. Silencing the “food police.” That kind of thing.

My homework for this week is to write down a list of foods I like to eat. Any food … every food … whether I’ve thought of it as “good” or “bad,” it’s all supposed to go on the list.

I haven’t actually written the list out yet, but I went right out and purchased one of the foods on it that I’ve missed: Bacon. Real bacon, not that crappy substitute, turkey bacon.

Last night for dinner, I fired up George to make asparagus, wrapped in two slices of bacon (four spears per slice). With it, I had two eggs, fried, and a couple of slices of polenta.

I also munched on four six Hershey’s kisses. When I got back to work, I ate two clementines. And when I got home, I had some fudge-covered grahams with a glass of milk and, later (because I was still up) a Reeses’ mini-PB tree.

OK, none of that sounds amazing. Yes, there was a lot of sugar involved. Here’s the amazing thing:

I wanted a second tree. But instead of telling myself I didn’t need one, I said, “Go ahead. Eat another one.”

Suddenly, I didn’t want it anymore.

Same thing happened this afternoon at the grocery store. I stood in front of the donuts in the bakery case, looking at them somewhat longingly. But when I told myself to go ahead and get one (instead of saying, “you shouldn’t eat one of those. They’re bad for you”), none of them looked quite as good anymore.

I feel like I may be on the verge of a breakthrough, although it seems a little too easy. Surely it can’t be as easy as just saying nothing is off-limits. Weight Watchers said that, because you could spend your flex Points on anything … and I still went nuts eating things I thought of as not on-plan.

I’m still making my list (and it will include things like hamburgers, fries and eggnog). Look for it in a post later this week.

We’ll see what happens.