Dieters seem especially susceptible to this kind of pattern, where a minor misstep turns into a major binge, in what’s known as the “abstinence violation effect”: “I broke my diet by eating this one mini-­cupcake, so now I’m going to eat the whole box.” Also, when dieters figure that they’ve blown their diet,12 they tend to do a worse job of tracking their consumption, at the very time when the Strategy of Monitoring would be particularly helpful. By continuing to monitor consumption, a person gains a sense of awareness, and even more important, a sense of control. Counterintuitively, monitoring can even be reassuring. If I’m thinking, “Oh yikes, I just ate a ton of meatballs,” I feel out of control. By entering “6 meatballs” into my food tracker, I take control. Six meatballs is a lot of meatballs, but it’s just six meatballs. --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]] **Source** -- [[20240806084000 - B - Better Than Before]]