To splurge or not to splurge (or how many times can I use the word "splurge" in one post)

I feel like I went a little out of control for a while.  Lots of treats all of the time.  Lots of sugar and carbs.  Lots of swapping out a healthy lunch or afternoon snack for Hale and Hearty soup or Cool Ranch Doritos.  Lots of eating jelly beans by the handful and snacking on all the leftovers from office meetings.  So, I'm trying to reign that in a bit.  

But it's hard!  There's always something around.  Whether its leftover meeting cookies in the kitchen at work, the hospitality room at work conferences, random lunches, bagel Thursday, pizza Friday, or whatever junk my dad has laying around when we visit on the weekends.  Or, you know, everything and anything in Duane Reade or the dozens of eating establishments within a two block radius of my office. And the displays of holiday candy at the grocery store. And the impulse racks at virtually any store.

I was talking to a client the other day about this.  He said that he hates waste, so he always just figures that he should eat the leftovers from office meetings so that they don't get thrown out.  I totally buy that logic.  But, it's probably not the best from a health perspective. 

I think its the worst when I'm bored.  Or feeling deprived or lacking in something.  Or just being totally mindless. 

I know that eating a bag of Doritos or a cupcake at 3 p.m. isn't going to do much for me.  The cupcake will probably leave me feeling slightly dizzy and weak from all the sugar.  And I'll be hungry like an hour later.  Same with the Doritos.  But it's something to do when I'm bored at work and something that feels like a treat.  A little bright spot in an otherwise drab day. 

And leftover meeting cookies - those are like surprise packages from your grandmother or something.  They're a godsend. Even though I don't usually need to eat them, they're there and they're yummy and they're still pretty small, right?  Let's ignore the fact that you generally can't just eat one. 

And there's nothing better than eating the myriad Entemann's offerings that my dad has at his house on the weekend. I usually don't buy them for our place, so I tell myself it's ok to splurge when I'm there.  It's only one weekend, right?  Let's ignore the fact that we're there pretty frequently.  And that two weekends ago for dessert I had a hot fudge sundae followed by a cannoli (I will admit I felt pretty crappy after that).

But like I said, I've been trying to reign it in a bit lately.  Trying to let myself only have one "splurge" a day.  Except that I haven't really defined what a splurge is.  Yes, ice cream is most definitely a splurge.  A cannoli is a splurge.  A bag of chips is a splurge.  But is a piece of pizza for lunch?  Or is that just a slightly crappier-than-normal lunch but in the long-run not that horrible.  Three pieces would definitely be a splurge.  But is one? Two? What if I eat salad on the side?

What about a bagel with butter for breakfast.  Sure, it's not the healthiest thing that I could have gotten, but it's not a completely huge calorie bomb. It had to be better than, say, a McDonald's breakfast sandwich (those biscuits are so good, but my stomach hates me after...). Should that count as my splurge for the day?  And do I really want to use that up as my splurge if it does? 

I obviously need to better define this if I'm going to be successful at all.  In my mind, anything overly sweet or overly processed automatically is a splurge.  So cookies, chips, baked goods, ice cream - those are all splurges.  But really, that's a pretty vague definition, even for me.  If I'm going to be at all successful, I need to get  more specific about what's acceptable - and at what quantities - and where something turns into a daily splurge. 

I also need to figure out if this is really the best way for me to go.  I'm afraid that limiting myself to one splurge a day is going to make me want to eat. all. the. food.  Like I'm depriving myself.  Is it better to just eat what I feel like eating, but do it more mindfully, so that I'm not eating just because I'm bored or unfulfilled or tired or whatever. 

I think I need to play around a bit.  Figure out what works best for me and then go from there.  And I'm sure what works best for me tomorrow is going to be different then what works best for me 2 years from now or even 2 months from now.  But I need to somehow get to a good baseline and then work from there.