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!
It was my birthday…. and I didn’t even want dessert! But then the next day I let myself have 2 pb cups.
I’ve been thinking about food differently after this post!
I’ve been thinking about food differently after this post!
I keep little treats around that are small enough that I can enjoy them in moderation with out having to wait for a “cheat” day but yet not eat them everyday.
I keep little treats around that are small enough that I can enjoy them in moderation with out having to wait for a “cheat” day but yet not eat them everyday.
My husband and I have lessen the amount of sweets in the house a while back, but because I am a home-baker sometimes I am always baking something sweet. Thank goodness I have wonderful friends that are willing to take the sweets off my hands.
My husband and I have lessen the amount of sweets in the house a while back, but because I am a home-baker sometimes I am always baking something sweet. Thank goodness I have wonderful friends that are willing to take the sweets off my hands.
Sweets are the hardest thing for me to resist. I try the same method with Weight Watchers (anything in moderation). Moderation is the hard part, and still a learning process.
Sweets are the hardest thing for me to resist. I try the same method with Weight Watchers (anything in moderation). Moderation is the hard part, and still a learning process.
Sweets are my downfall. But ice cream is my favorite. All week I have been able to pass up the candy around the office and it will be easier since I will give myself permission to have the occasional ice cream.
Sweets are my downfall. But ice cream is my favorite. All week I have been able to pass up the candy around the office and it will be easier since I will give myself permission to have the occasional ice cream.
Sweets are my downfall. But ice cream is my favorite. All week I have been able to pass up the candy around the office and it will be easier since I will give myself permission to have the occasional ice cream.
Definately something to work on. This mission goes hand in hand with emotional eating for me.
Definately something to work on. This mission goes hand in hand with emotional eating for me.
Hello to everyone: Happy Easter! The challenge for the day is if the Easter Bunny leaves you a basket of goodies — don’t eat the candy. This may take some willpower but you can do it. But those hard boiled eggs will be good for you. Keep up the good work and keep posting daily to stay accountable. Good Luck.
I get it to not deprive…but if I have a treat in the house, it calls me until it’s gone. I binge if it is here. true problem area for me. now, I can run to the store for the strategic splurge, but wonder if there will ever be a day I can have cake in the house and not hear it crying for me to eat every last crumb?
Hello to everyone: Happy Easter! The challenge for the day is if the Easter Bunny leaves you a basket of goodies — don’t eat the candy. This may take some willpower but you can do it. But those hard boiled eggs will be good for you. Keep up the good work and keep posting daily to stay accountable. Good Luck.
Hello to everyone: Happy Easter! The challenge for the day is if the Easter Bunny leaves you a basket of goodies — don’t eat the candy. This may take some willpower but you can do it. But those hard boiled eggs will be good for you. Keep up the good work and keep posting daily to stay accountable. Good Luck.
This is something I always have tried to do, but having boys that take the “treats” out and mindlessly leave them out (and I don’t buy a lot of them so they are truly treats) makes it a bit challenging at certain times ;).
This is something I always have tried to do, but having boys that take the “treats” out and mindlessly leave them out (and I don’t buy a lot of them so they are truly treats) makes it a bit challenging at certain times ;).