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 use this idea a lot. I like to use these items for a reward. I like to have a goal with a prize at the end!
I try to keep most of the stuff I crave out of the house, so if I really want it I have to go get it. Hubby, though, can eat all the junk without any trouble. So I need to have him hide the stuff I might lose control over.
I try to keep most of the stuff I crave out of the house, so if I really want it I have to go get it. Hubby, though, can eat all the junk without any trouble. So I need to have him hide the stuff I might lose control over.
I try to keep most of the stuff I crave out of the house, so if I really want it I have to go get it. Hubby, though, can eat all the junk without any trouble. So I need to have him hide the stuff I might lose control over.
Love this! I stategically spluged on maple sugar candy…so worth it.
Love this! I stategically spluged on maple sugar candy…so worth it.
I’ve been not buying anything I crave for a while, when I think I want it & it’s not in the house, I quickly discover I don’t really need it that bad after all and I don’t look for a substitute.
I’ve been not buying anything I crave for a while, when I think I want it & it’s not in the house, I quickly discover I don’t really need it that bad after all and I don’t look for a substitute.
Mine is sour candy and I have put it out of sight. Most times it’s out of sight out of mind. I also sent my bro. back to the nursing home with 2 bags of chips & candy.
Mine is sour candy and I have put it out of sight. Most times it’s out of sight out of mind. I also sent my bro. back to the nursing home with 2 bags of chips & candy.
Mine is sour candy and I have put it out of sight. Most times it’s out of sight out of mind. I also sent my bro. back to the nursing home with 2 bags of chips & candy.
Do any of you have large families that have any tips for dealing with the stuff that they can have and not gain an ounce that they bring into the house? I’ve asked and begged for my kids to hide stuff and most of the time they do, but then one of the kids will want chocolate chip cookies and make them. And then we have the birthday cake dilemma every month. and my dh eats whatever whenever and then asks me to go out for ice cream with him and gets upset when I tell him I’m already at my calorie limit, so I give in. HELP!
Love the idea of “strategically splurging.” I think it is teaching yourself more about portion control and learning not to use food as a crutch. Especially since you put a sticky on it asking yourself if you really need it. GREAT idea!
Love the idea of “strategically splurging.” I think it is teaching yourself more about portion control and learning not to use food as a crutch. Especially since you put a sticky on it asking yourself if you really need it. GREAT idea!
I love my chocolate, so I only get the good stuff 70% chocolate and if I crave sweets I break a small piece off from the freezer. It was the unconscious snacking on the other sweets like cookies that got me and I don’t even like them that much. Now that I have a plan and I’m allowing myself to have a piece of chocolate every now and then I feel free.
I love my chocolate, so I only get the good stuff 70% chocolate and if I crave sweets I break a small piece off from the freezer. It was the unconscious snacking on the other sweets like cookies that got me and I don’t even like them that much. Now that I have a plan and I’m allowing myself to have a piece of chocolate every now and then I feel free.
I love my chocolate, so I only get the good stuff 70% chocolate and if I crave sweets I break a small piece off from the freezer. It was the unconscious snacking on the other sweets like cookies that got me and I don’t even like them that much. Now that I have a plan and I’m allowing myself to have a piece of chocolate every now and then I feel free.
I’m going to have to take a healthy stash to work – maybe the mini boxes of raisins you can get. There are too many times when I find myself popping to the vending machine (at work) and coming back with some sort of chocolate fix that I don’t really need.
I don’t have much in the way of sweet things at home, though I may get myself an emergency stash of some things so that if I do have a chocolate craving, I can have a small choc bar rather than stopping off at the supermarket on the way home and buying a family-sized bar that then looks at me until I’ve eaten it all.
Here lately, because of some medicine, I’ve been fighting insomnia. With this, I’m finding that I’m wanting to snack late at night. Thankfully, there hasn’t been anything to snack on , until now — Easter Candy! Ugh! But, I like the idea of placing it somewhere that will take an effort to get to. Living in Florida, we can’t leave it out too long or it gets too soft… I’m thinking somewhere in the frig!
Here lately, because of some medicine, I’ve been fighting insomnia. With this, I’m finding that I’m wanting to snack late at night. Thankfully, there hasn’t been anything to snack on , until now — Easter Candy! Ugh! But, I like the idea of placing it somewhere that will take an effort to get to. Living in Florida, we can’t leave it out too long or it gets too soft… I’m thinking somewhere in the frig!