"Celebrating" with food

schernosky3482

It seems since Thanksgiving I have had a hard time with this. I just can't seem to get it out of my head that it's not okay to overly celebrate with food. Luckily all of the big celbrations are over and I can focus on this diet but it's been difficult even on the weekends. I usually have a good weigh in and think I can splurge. How do you get passed that?

moonsforeyes

Stop using food as a reward. Food shouldn't be a reward. It is tied to everything we celebrate though, holidays, birthdays, etc. Reward yourself with other splurges! Like new clothes, purse, hair style, etc.

ShaSimone

I get treats everyday! So when I go out to eat I don't care to splurge on dessert. If I do plan to eat a dessert I make sure I only eat half my meal. Try to make the "celebrations" about the people that are around you, who support your goals, who enrich your life, and less about the food. I comfort and entertain myself with food, it's a tough habit to break but you can accomplish your goals!

thepetiterunner

I don't consider it "celebrating" more like trade-offs. If I want to have cake, a huge epic thai meal, etc, then it's fine, but I make myself a deal that I'll keep it within my calories for the day or that week. For example, I'll run an extra few miles that week or hit the gym an extra session.

While I don't think the use of food as a "treat" or "reward" is a necessarily useful while you're trying to lose weight, I don't think it's something you can reasonably sustain for the rest of your life. There will always be holiday meals and time with the family that revolves around foods that might be non-ideal.

Just make them trade-offs and accept them as a part of your lifestyle. Perhaps just use these sparingly, or hit the gym extra hard often and enjoy the meals

Perswaysion

I motivate with materialism. Sounds bad but works for me. I set small goals and reward it with shopping. New workout clothes. Maybe a nice sports bra I've been eyeballing. An adorable pair of capris. Things like that. Atm I'm working hard to earning a HRM. I like to shop and stopped once I put on the weight so for me it's a way of finding my way back to my old lifestyle. The one where I was active, more fit. There has to be something else in your life that you love to do.

schernosky3482

There's a lot I love to do. I'm not saying that I have totally given up but I have really rough spots that tend to be the weekends. I have only lost 10 pounds since November and I'm thinking that's why. I've been getting to the gym more, so I know that has helped but my eating bad isn't helping the matter.

DFoles14

I don't consider it "celebrating" more like trade-offs. If I want to have cake, a huge epic thai meal, etc, then it's fine, but I make myself a deal that I'll keep it within my calories for the day or that week. For example, I'll run an extra few miles that week or hit the gym an extra session.

While I don't think the use of food as a "treat" or "reward" is a necessarily useful while you're trying to lose weight, I don't think it's something you can reasonably sustain for the rest of your life. There will always be holiday meals and time with the family that revolves around foods that might be non-ideal.

Just make them trade-offs and accept them as a part of your lifestyle. Perhaps just use these sparingly, or hit the gym extra hard often and enjoy the meals

Well said

teamfit2day

Dont mean to be blunt but I read this quote once:

"DO NOT REWARD YOURSELF WITH FOOD. YOU ARE NOT A DOG."

MrsLeibas

Well I can agree that the weekends are hard. My fiance and I are both trying to lose weight, and we are good about cooking healthy meals at home during the week, and we try to on the weekends too, but we usually have at least one night where it is hard to resist the idea of splurging ... but I will tell you there are two things that help me ... one tracking all my calories ... for example last night we had pizza hut because I was late getting off work and I was starving when I got home ... so I enduldged ... but look at my calories for last nights dinner (I think it's open for viewing) ... that meal last night was almost 1500 calories, (I'm only supposed to eat 1670 a day) ... that's a real eye opener! The other eye opener is that I only have one day a week as an official weigh in day that I log onto my fitness pal but I tend to get on the scale every morning just to see the weigh my weight is trending ... and I have found that the morning after a night of enduldging I tend to be at least 2 lbs heavier!! That's also a real eye opener too ... I don't want one meal and one night of enduldging to cause me to gain 2 lbs!! Especially because after I eat that meal I can enjoy the reward later .... I would rather enjoy my rewards for longer than the length of one meal so I would suggest making a list of reasonable rewards that you can purchase for yourself (i.e. clothes, shoes,. makeup, spa day, work out gear, gym membership, trainer, etc) and then on that list define how you earn those rewards and as you achieve those goals then you get yourself the predetermined reward.