Depriving yourself of your favourite foods (or even entire food groups) is a sure-fire way to attach guilt and/or shame around food, spark those dreaded ‘fuck it’ moments, binge eat, and nullify the hard work you’ve produced in the gym…
Worse yet, labelling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ creates an environment where one will impose self-judgement on themselves for eating certain foods or engaging in certain eating behaviours, creating an unhealthy relationship with both food and exercise..
Attaching judgment
and depriving yourself of specific foods or food groups in this way is simply unhealthy, unrealistic & unsustainable, and often leads to either:
-succumbing to the ‘scarcity mindset’ (an environment like a social event where the presence of foods that you crave causes you to behave like a frantic squirrel 
before winter, because your brain knows it’s about to be deprived of those very foods.)
-resorting to comfort food during situations of emotional vulnerability
(“I’ve had a hard week, I deserve a break”) where binging, snacking or grazing on foods you crave is the fastest, most rapid & reliable way for you to numb negative feelings..
I propose a more realistic, sustainable & enjoyable approach…
Be sure to include some of your favourite ultra-processed foods (you know the ones I mean… 
) into whatever fat-loss strategy you adopt… So you can maintain your sanity AND enjoy the process (which is a pre-requisite for consistency.)
-Pre-plan most of the meals and snacks you intend to eat throughout the week (consisting of wholesome, minimally processed foods 
), but also allow yourself a handful (of sensibly portioned) unplanned meals or snacks throughout the week, consisting of foods that you eat to enjoy.
-Keep a 
journal of ALL the meals & snacks you consume throughout each day…
-if the meal or snack was unplanned, was it among the 
handful of meals that you had allocated yourself to enjoy with friends & family (or by yourself) OR were you eating due to compulsion?
-if it was compulsive eating, then how were you feeling in that moment? Tired, stressed, frustrated, bored, depressed? Maybe even lonely or inadequate?
-becoming 
‘The Watcher’ of your emotional patterns gives you the first step in solving your problems (identifying them!) which goes a LONG WAY to self mastery and achieving those body, health & fitness goals!
