Day 8: Splurge Strategically Part 1 | 30-Day Weight Loss-athon
Time for Day 8 of the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon. If you go crazy trying to deny yourself food that diet boot-campers forbid, then today’s 10 minutes could restore your sanity.
Read the steps first, then take 10 minutes to think about them and take action.Ready?
What You Need:
- Your sanity, right?
Step 1
First, before anyone starts planning a lifetime of lettuce and lima beans, let’s take a reality check about what’s forever forbidden.
I adore chocolate and a lot of what’s considered junk food – burgers, fries, pizza, chips, and cookies. People are always asking me how I can eat that stuff yet stay slim. The answer is: I splurge strategically.
Splurging strategically helps me to stay slim and – just as important for a chocoholic – it helps me to stay sane.
But there are two keys to splurging strategically – knowing what to eat sometimes, which we’ll tackle today, and knowing what to eat pretty much never, which we’ll deal with tomorrow.
Step 2
With all things ‘naughty’ or calorific, there’s only one solution to staying slim and staying sane: If you love it, eat it sometimes.
- If you eat it all the time, then you’ll get fat. It’s cause and effect: cruel, but unavoidable.
- If you don’t let yourself eat it at all, then you’ll go berserk – and eventually binge. Then you’ll be crazy and fat. Oopsie.
By letting yourself strategically enjoy the foods you love, you avoid feeling deprived, which stops you sabotaging your own weight-loss efforts.
The big proviso here is the word strategically. You can’t make treats a habit – they need to come out only when you want to satisfy a strong desire.
Maybe you’re one of those fabled individuals who’ve mastered emotional eating. (Note: 52 Weight Loss Missions customers, we deal with this tricky topic in Mission 43: Address Emotional Eating – Part 1 and Address Emotional Eating – Part 2). Well then, yay for you.
But for the rest of us, a little chocolate, cake or ice cream when you’ve had a crummy day is not the worst thing in the world, and can be an effective way to release the pressure valve now and then.
In the same way, something delicious and calorific when you really crave it can be pretty cool.
I’ll say it another way so there’s no misunderstanding: you cannot have these treats as a standard, habitual part of your diet: have them only when you really feel like them.
So make the decision that when it comes to high-calorie treats, you’ll eat only the foods you love, and only when you really feel like them. And when you do, thoroughly enjoy them.
Step 3
Okay, so we’ve agreed that it’s okay to have the things you really love when you really feel like them.
To help you avoid them the rest of the time, we need this final step.
Whatever treats you decide you want to have in your house, don’t have them in plain view.
Keep them out of the pantry or any place where you may accidentally come across them. Put them in a box or bag (not a clear one) and store them in a cupboard you don’t use. They’ll be there when you really feel like them, but they won’t pop out and tempt youwhen you weren’t even thinking about them.
And if you like, pop a post-it on there that says something like,
‘I can have this if I really want it. Do I really want it?’
Step 4
But wait, there’s more. The splurge strategically concept has two parts to it – so please be sure to check back for tomorrow’s action.
Check in!
And you’re done! Be sure to leave your comment below to check in and stay accountable.
If you’re reading this by email or in a reader then please click here to leave your comment. See you tomorrow!
I love the idea of strategic splurging. I know I wouldn’t be able to stay on any plan if I couldn’t have a cookie every now and then. I can’t wait to see the second part tomorrow.
Update I’ve been amazed at how much pre scheduling my workouts has motivated me. If it’s down in my calendar it gets done!
I love the idea of strategic splurging. I know I wouldn’t be able to stay on any plan if I couldn’t have a cookie every now and then. I can’t wait to see the second part tomorrow.
Update I’ve been amazed at how much pre scheduling my workouts has motivated me. If it’s down in my calendar it gets done!
With my stressful job its hard to not have a glass of wine every night. I also like to bake when given the chance. Now I’m experimenting with gluten free recipes with lots of almond meal and ground linseed. Every glass on wine I want, I tell myself that’s one more I can have on holidays if I don’t have it now. It seems to be working as I will be in Spain, I want to be splurge strategically while I’m there.
I think I’ll place a post-it note with my desired weight on it on the goodies cupboard to help me resist.
I think I’ll place a post-it note with my desired weight on it on the goodies cupboard to help me resist.
I think I’ll place a post-it note with my desired weight on it on the goodies cupboard to help me resist.
Today is a perfect day for this lesson. In our family we balanced our easter baskets this year by filling them games to play and healthy snacks like almonds. However we did throw in a few sweets to allow a “strategic splurge.”And 🙂
we always have chocolate in this house and I will only eat it about once a month when I crave something sweet. My hubbie works in a chocolate factory and even he has stopped tasting at work to the surprise of the “cooks” making the goodies all day.
started having a low fat yoghurt or strawberries when I crave sweet instead and that helps. I find the less carbs and sweet things I eat the less I crave them, of course there are times when I will have something bad (I’m Only human) but I don’t dwell on it, tomorrow is another day and I move on.
we always have chocolate in this house and I will only eat it about once a month when I crave something sweet. My hubbie works in a chocolate factory and even he has stopped tasting at work to the surprise of the “cooks” making the goodies all day.
started having a low fat yoghurt or strawberries when I crave sweet instead and that helps. I find the less carbs and sweet things I eat the less I crave them, of course there are times when I will have something bad (I’m Only human) but I don’t dwell on it, tomorrow is another day and I move on.
we always have chocolate in this house and I will only eat it about once a month when I crave something sweet. My hubbie works in a chocolate factory and even he has stopped tasting at work to the surprise of the “cooks” making the goodies all day.
started having a low fat yoghurt or strawberries when I crave sweet instead and that helps. I find the less carbs and sweet things I eat the less I crave them, of course there are times when I will have something bad (I’m Only human) but I don’t dwell on it, tomorrow is another day and I move on.
This makes TOTAL SENSE. I had a strategically splurged small McDonald’s fries a week or so ago. I waited for two days and when the craving didn’t pass – fulfilled the “need”. I don’t usually keep the really “naughty” cravings in the house, so that helps a lot. Also, my hubby doesn’t buy treats for me just cause I ask, sometimes not even when I whine and beg!, which also helps.
This makes TOTAL SENSE. I had a strategically splurged small McDonald’s fries a week or so ago. I waited for two days and when the craving didn’t pass – fulfilled the “need”. I don’t usually keep the really “naughty” cravings in the house, so that helps a lot. Also, my hubby doesn’t buy treats for me just cause I ask, sometimes not even when I whine and beg!, which also helps.
Chocolate bars are kept in the very back of a. Crisper in the fridge, and salty snacks are on a high shelf that requires a small stepladder to reach. The effors required to access makes me re-think whether I really want them.
Chocolate bars are kept in the very back of a. Crisper in the fridge, and salty snacks are on a high shelf that requires a small stepladder to reach. The effors required to access makes me re-think whether I really want them.
Chocolate bars are kept in the very back of a. Crisper in the fridge, and salty snacks are on a high shelf that requires a small stepladder to reach. The effors required to access makes me re-think whether I really want them.
I “strategically splurged” on the Reese’s Bunny. It was soooo good. BUT, I didn’t eat all of it which is what I would have done under normal circumstances. Baby steps, right?
I “strategically splurged” on the Reese’s Bunny. It was soooo good. BUT, I didn’t eat all of it which is what I would have done under normal circumstances. Baby steps, right?
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