Attitude towards treats

boredfatman

hi all,

Do any of you find it hard to stay balanced about attitudes towards treats?

I've been so strict over the last 5 months with hardly any treats of any sort and it's worked well.

However today I wanted some chocolate even though I know it takes me over my limit for the day. I am beating myself up for it yet realistically I know one day won't really hurt. I'm just so used to staying within my calories now and hate seeing the negative!

I have a limit of 1780 a day. I gained 661 exercise calories today mainly from a 7k run, and I'm still 200 odd calories over that!

Hate it!

Those Galaxy bites are making me pay.

Just a bit of a vent really, hope I don't develop an unhealthy attitude towards food.

jaga13

I tried to stop eating sweets and failed. Now I budget them into my daily calories every single day, and manage to stay under budget most days.

pedidiva

I allow for a daily "treat" in my mealplan. It is a See's lollypop cafe latte flavored. Plan for your treat, portion control, and enjoy. HTH.

shrinkingletters

I don't consider them treats. I just make space for it. I do however, log them as "sweets and snacks" so I can keep an eye on my intake of it vs my main meals.

SuggaD

I eat treats as treats. So I don't have it every day, though if you can fit it in every day, great. I usually wait until the weekends. I can usually eat more then and can really splurge (1 qt of frozen yogurt, 1 whole medium pizza, etc.). Though if I'm craving something, I go get it, even if it puts me over. I'll just balance it out the rest of the week.

Sarasmaintaining

Nothing wrong with eating the food you enjoy-just fit them into your calorie goals (pre-planning is a great way to do this).

SezxyStef

it's in my daily log everyday...1 cadbury milk chocolate bar....yes an entire bar.

I log my breakfast then my snack and work around those two things...

jemhh

boredfatman wrote: »

hi all,

Do any of you find it hard to stay balanced about attitudes towards treats?

I've been so strict over the last 5 months with hardly any treats of any sort and it's worked well.

However today I wanted some chocolate even though I know it takes me over my limit for the day. I am beating myself up for it yet realistically I know one day won't really hurt. I'm just so used to staying within my calories now and hate seeing the negative!

I have a limit of 1780 a day. I gained 661 exercise calories today mainly from a 7k run, and I'm still 200 odd calories over that!

Hate it!

Those Galaxy bites are making me pay.

Just a bit of a vent really, hope I don't develop an unhealthy attitude towards food.

I started out limiting my sweets to one serving per week, always on Sunday. I did that for 5-6 months because I was trying to train myself to have better impulse control with them. Once I started adding them back, I did have a short period where I felt like "oh maybe I shouldn't have this" even though I knew perfectly well that it was fine. Once you get used to letting yourself splurge a little, it gets easier to not feel like that.

MakePeasNotWar

I did eliminate sweets for a short while when I first started, because I wanted to break the mental habit of reaching for something sweet every time things weren't going exactly the way I wanted.

In time I learned some new coping strategies, and now I eat sweets only when I really genuinely want to eat them (not as a reflexive reaction to a bad day, or a good day for that matter). I would say I went from about 500 calories per day of "treats" to roughly 500 a week. I also never tie them to anything unrelated to food; I never say "i deserve this" or "this will help me feel better". The only good reason for me to eat chocolate is that I really want to eat chocolate (and that is enough. I don't need to "earn" it.)

Also, I don't stress about going over my calories one day: I try to keep it balanced over the week. I can always cut 50 calories a day for a few days if I want to have an extra 200 calorie treat today. If it works out at the end of the week, I'm fine with some variation day to day.

Everybody's experience is different, but this works really well for me.

ASKyle

You have to make them fit.

There were donuts at the office today. I had a donut. Then I head a salad with grilled chicken for lunch. Balance it out.

ruggedshutter

Don't beat yourself up. The calorie "goal" is simply a target. You aren't going to gain weight if you are over the magic line (if you set it at a deficit). Yes it took me quite a while to accept this. I use the calorie goal more as a target. I stay as close to the goal as I can but things happen, sometimes I'm more hungry than other days.

jaga13

MakePeasNotWar wrote: »

I also never tie them to anything unrelated to food; I never say "i deserve this" or "this will help me feel better". The only good reason for me to eat chocolate is that I really want to eat chocolate (and that is enough. I don't need to "earn" it.)

Great advice! I did a lot of "I deserve this" thinking, but one day it clicked that overeating doesn't actually reward me at all. (and I was way overeating sweets). Now I budget for a small daily dessert (some days I don't even eat it).

forgtmenot

Try to make up for it tomorrow or over the rest of the week and you will still lose the same as you would have if you would not have eaten the chocolate. A lot of people calculate their weekly deficit instead of daily so that they can eat more one day, but they don't feel like they've failed overall because they are still under for the week.

DirrtyH

I eat them. Sometimes they fit in my goal. Sometimes they don't and I just move on. For me, when food isn't forbidden it loses its power. My sister made brownies the other day, and I ate one brownie. I didn't even realize it until later when I was thinking back and realized, I was totally satisfied with that one brownie. Before, I would have probably eaten the whole pan and then felt guilty and gross after.

AlabasterVerve

Anytime I choose to eat off plan because of a special occasion or even if it just sounds good I mark an X on the calendar with a highlighter. It's insanely helpful at keeping things in perspective -- one day does not "ruin" anything -- and it's a nice visual reminder of that.

It's such a simple thing but it's been extremely effective at making sure I don't fall back into bad eating patterns when I loosen up my diet once in awhile... which means I can truly enjoy indulging when I do.

Francl27

I make them fit. Sometimes it means I will have a bunless burger or skip the rice at dinner, but whatever. It's all about choices and I like my sweets... I have small portions though.

trigden1991

My mentality is; eat whatever you want, chocolate, pizza or chips........ As long as your daily calories are less than your maintenance. You WILL lose weight if you're in a caloric deficit!

krissyreminisce

I restricted them when I was losing, but now that I'm in maintenance I am able to squeeze them in better. Usually it's ice cream, but on my rest day, it's just a square of very dark chocolate (I'm up to 90%) and perhaps a decaf coffee with some sugar free/fat free creamer, and that does the trick just as well.

kickassbarbie

You need to stop seeing treats as such a big deal and remeber it's okay to eat "treats" when you want.

Long term you will have to treat yourself to what you want sometimes or risk falling off the wagon completely. No one can be 100% good and on track everyday for the rest of their lives. You can fit 99.9% of foods into a healthy lifestyle so no need for cutting out treat type foods. I'd be miserable without my "bad" foods. I dint have a problem losing while sometimes eating chocolate, take out or whatever. I just make it fit my weekly calories.

Maybe drop your cals 100 a day for the next two days or 50cal for four days and you'll be right back on track with those 200 that are bugging you.

Sued0nim

I eat crisps and ice cream most days .. cos I like 'em

that includes mainly during weight loss but more so during maintenance

I don't consider them 'treats', I just consider them things I like to eat

I also consider foods like toast with cottage cheese, avocado and tomato a treat because yum

basically I don't really put anything in my mouth that I don't like the flavour of .. giggity

isulo_kura

I don't think of Treats or Cheats. I just eat food I like within my goals and that may include Cupcake or chocolate on occasion. I personally think a lot of people's issues is because they compartmentalise food as Good, bad or as Treats/Cheats. Food is just food