Addiction causing foods and cheat days

I've lost over 70 pounds in a little over a year. I always have these massive cheat days on Sundays and so far it's worked out, until recently, I wanna stop!! My Sunday cheat days is all I look forward to and can't imagine life without them (that kind of thinking is found in drug addicts). Eliminating processed food takes care of the biological side of cravings but the mental cravings are what's killing me. All my life food has been the goal, the reward, the prize!!! As counterintuitive as it sounds, the more progress I make the more I feel entitled to junk food!!! I can't seem to rewire my brain, nothing else is as enjoyable as sugar and fat. This is not even a question, but I feel desperate so I wrote this post.
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Replies

  • R4U1R0DR1GU3Z
    R4U1R0DR1GU3Z Posts: 81 Member
    edited November 2018
    @AimJolie, totally!!! I've experienced exactly that!!!
  • MsAbril2018
    MsAbril2018 Posts: 4 Member
    I can truly relate to your post. Sugar was everything to me at one point in my life. Trying to have sugar in moderation is a tease. Having sweets in moderation is key, but dot over do it. Congratulations on your weight loss. #dontstopdontquit
  • Gamliela
    Gamliela Posts: 2,469 Member
    I abstain from foods that I have found to trigger overeating; for me its sugar, deserts, bread, or if I eat a lot of fruit, rice or potatoes. I keep carbohydrates in my diet, in the form of veg, nuts, dairy, rice and potatoes, but attne same time I watch how I feel closely, pre-logging foods for the day is also a key to any success I have had.

    Once in a while, like maybe twice a year I eat a pastry or a desert, it has to be worth it, so I make sure it's delecious.
    One normal isolated serving rarely gives me the old unstoppable tiger stampede, I think that is because I have worked on the problem of overeating every day for a long time.

    I found the cravings I had after quiting eating trigger foods every day like I used to do were gone after two weeks or less.

    Finding new ways to eat and avoid pitfalls is an ongoing adventure. Some things I have to watch out for are: holidays built around food, traveling, well meaning people who bring over dessert foods. Being asked out for dinner or meetings over restaurant meals.

    Internal problems I have had are excuses I tell myself about how I deserve the treats, or that life is too hard without them, or some nonsense about how this is the last time I am liable to see a piece of cheesecake ever again. Stuff like that will come to mind sometimes, those are tips to me that I am on dangerous ground.

    I continue to pre log my food for the day in maintenance.
    Walking has been very helpful also.

  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    Some people are abstainers, not moderators, and that's okay. But it also means you can't have cheat days if you're an abstainer, because you can't moderate. Maybe the cheat days are making it worse because you're anticipating the food.

    Personally this may be the most helpful post that I have read in a long time. I knew all things in moderation was very wrong advice in my case but I never really understood why before your post.

    Thanks @RelCanonical
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    Some people are abstainers, not moderators, and that's okay. But it also means you can't have cheat days if you're an abstainer, because you can't moderate. Maybe the cheat days are making it worse because you're anticipating the food.

    Personally this may be the most helpful post that I have read in a long time. I knew all things in moderation was very wrong advice in my case but I never really understood why before your post.

    Thanks @RelCanonical

    I just learned about it recently myself. I can't recall the thread I found it in (somewhere on MFP) but I kept the link the person shared: https://gretchenrubin.com/2012/10/back-by-popular-demand-are-you-an-abstainer-or-a-moderator/

    I'm definitely a moderator, haha.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,907 Member
    It's the same argument we've had eleventy thousand times on this site and the two sides will never concede the other's point.

    I say if it's a problem (and I fall on the abstainer side) then find which way works and like every other life decision, own it.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I think you would enjoy Habit by Duhigg. It will give you insights in to the reward cycle.

    Find some alternatives to the food reward.

    Mental resistance just makes obsessions stronger. The trick is to diminish and redirect.

    Diminish - it’s only food.

    Redirect - what other rewards are you missing out on? Look forward to something else besides food.

    Alternatives that work for me, as I am a closet introvert, include a bubble bath, a good book, a walk, knitting, and painting.