Building a Habit takes Energy.

Building a positive Habit takes energy.

In the beginning, habit takes mental energy,
to remember to be "good",
and follow a new type of eating behavior.

A person has a finite amount of mental energy
to spend on being virtuous.

Once we cross over the line from consciously "being good"
to just having the Habit,
we aren't using as much energy on it day to day,
and it becomes easier.

  It helps to try and move towards thinking about one's new eating behavior 
as mostly "allowing" oneself to eat the right amount of food,
instead of as denying oneself excess.
It helps when we think of ourselves as well-Treated
because we are in the process of eating correctly.

Going through most of our week
thinking of what we're doing as some sort of self-imposed suffering
for the benefit of our future self....becomes wearing.
This is especially true if our calorie deficit
is high enough to frequently cause gnawing hunger.

Thinking of what one is doing as a positive, can be in and of itself rewarding.
It is better not to classify our eating behavior as delayed gratification.
Many months can go by without one arriving at one's weight goal,
and maintenance of that weight goal seldom allows a drastic eating change.

It is best to reject surmising about WHAT extra foods you can eat at goal,
or mental bargaining about WHEN you will be able to eat differently.