Do you have food cheat days and if so why?

I may have larger meals but I don't plan for cheat days for that reason

Bridgie3 wrote: »

I have a thing in my arm taking readings of blood sugar every 3 minutes, making line graphs, bar graphs, averages, you name it.

I daren't cheat. The machine is watching.

That would be interesting to see how the fluctuations react to things you eat. IDK, maybe I don't want to know.

Do you have it for diabetes, sorry if that's too personal; you don't have to answer. I had a little girl in my home daycare, whose parents found out she was diabetic at 3 yo. What a life change that suddenly brought into their lives. And mine. I gave this poor little tike injections and finger sticks for quite awhile until they had an arm meter put in. Life was so much easier after that for her. She must be 12-13 now. Wow. Times flies. But I don't remember that her machine did all that, maybe things have changed.

Back to the original post, I have a hard time scheduling a cheat day because it's super challenging to schedule that 'back to work' day. My brain falls into the all or nothing mindset as well.
But last night I was proud of myself. I made cheesy mac and cheese, lots of buttery crumbs on top, for dh. I had maybe 1/8 c. for tasting purposes and could've easily had a couple bowls full. Comfort food at its best. Instead I added 30 minutes of brisk walking to help keep my calories at bay. Not every day is like that but yesterday was.

Who or what would I be "cheating"? "Cheat days" are like Santa Claus should be to an adult, a pleasant (maybe tempting to believe) myth or metaphor, IMO. I do make decisions about my eating, of course.

I don't put any foods I like off limits, I just manage portion size and frequency.

Most individual days, I'm within my calorie goal (very close to it, usually a little below, like within 50 calories), and my calorie goal is set to "calorie bank" 100-150 calories, in order to indulge occasionally. (I'm in maintenance these days, year 6+ of a healthy weight, after about 3 previous decades of overweight/obesity.)

Once in a while, I eat over my calorie goal, on some fairly rare occasions way over, like up to 2-3 times my TDEE, at an extreme. That might be something like my birthday, holiday, special restaurant, or just a rare very indulgent meal or day.

Most individual days, and certainly on average over a week, I make it a point get excellent nutrition, as recorded not including supplements: Over my protein, healthy fats, and fiber goals (which are minimums), over 100% on the MFP-tracked micronutrients, within my personally desired limits on things like dietary cholesterol and sodium (which I don't have health reasons to worry lots about, personally). IMO, good nutrition is health-promoting, and (happily) I enjoy eating quite a wide range of nutritious foods.

Once in a while, I choose to eat in a way that doesn't meet my daily nutritional goals (usually the weekly average is still fine). Who knows, maybe solo-eat a Detroit-style pizza, have birthday cake and ice cream, order deep-fried whatever, drink alcoholic bevs.

It's a plan, decisions, figuring out how to achieve a happy balance for life . . . not cheating. It needs to be managed, or I won't stay at a healthy weight. Being at a healthy weight is so. much. better. for my quality of life, compared to being overweight, let alone obese.

But sure, probably some people do better with "all or nothing" rules. I don't. Personalizing one's approach to weight management is really important, I think, and individuals vary in what works best.

ReenieHJ wrote: »

Bridgie3 wrote: »

I have a thing in my arm taking readings of blood sugar every 3 minutes, making line graphs, bar graphs, averages, you name it.

I daren't cheat. The machine is watching.

That would be interesting to see how the fluctuations react to things you eat. IDK, maybe I don't want to know.

Do you have it for diabetes, sorry if that's too personal; you don't have to answer. I had a little girl in my home daycare, whose parents found out she was diabetic at 3 yo. What a life change that suddenly brought into their lives. And mine. I gave this poor little tike injections and finger sticks for quite awhile until they had an arm meter put in. Life was so much easier after that for her. She must be 12-13 now. Wow. Times flies. But I don't remember that her machine did all that, maybe things have changed.

I have a hard time scheduling a cheat day because it's super challenging to schedule that 'back to work' day. My brain falls into the all or nothing mindset as well.
But last night I was proud of myself. I made cheesy mac and cheese, lots of buttery crumbs on top, for dh. I had maybe 1/8 c. for tasting purposes and could've easily had a couple bowls full. Comfort food at its best. Instead I added 30 minutes of brisk walking to help keep my calories at bay. Not every day is like that but yesterday was.

Yes I have type 2 diabetes and it's quite difficult, but nothing like as bad as type 1, which my nephew was diagnosed with at about 1 1/2.

He has a machine in his back that reads his blood sugars, tells the mothership (daddy's cellphone) if he's going high or going low with an alarm, and then daddy can tell the machine to feed him insulin or can wake him to give him food. It's brilliant what they can do for children nowadays.

Yes I am really fascinated by experimenting. Eating a thing and then watching my body react. I have experimented with my meds, I have done all sorts.

No longer replying to ReenieHJ tho, just responding in general: cheat days. That was a saying from years ago, it doesn't mean 'cheat', it means saving foods you love but don't want to have on this diet for one day a week, when you can go crazy and eat whatever you want. The argument is that it reduces fixations on bad foods.

I think it's a good idea, as fixations are really bad, they can give a person the sense that the food desired is very precious and important, and life without it will be not worth living. Having the food without the moral sense of having failed on a diet, and stopping the thinking if it is happening, is probably a good idea.

I'm too lazy tho. I just log my food and if I go over, so be it. Often I'm under, so who cares?

I am starting to fixate on vogels toast with peanut butter now though, I blame the bread thread. I'm probably just going to go have it and log it, and forget it.

So not really cheat days, just... cheat moments.

I wouldn't call it cheating, but I have my indulgences meal wise. I tend to look at my overall diet in the context of the whole. I eat very well nutritionally for the most part...but I'm not forgoing Friday or Saturday pizza and movie night with the family...it's immaterial to the whole. I indulge in some pub grub or go out for NM food maybe a couple times per month...again, completely irrelevant to the whole. I do not have entire days of just whatever. I enjoy good nutrition and good nutrition can also be indulgent and delicious...I also enjoy just the pure indulgence of some fish 'n chips or fried chicken. Balance is key.