Food is fuel NOT a reward - blinders not included!

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LastSixtySix
LastSixtySix Posts: 352 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
After finals finished (in which I always regain 6 or 8 new pounds lost the previous 12 weeks) found me this holiday season regaining 10 before I finally hit the breaks and refound my blinders. Though I will lose those 10 old pounds by the end of the year, it took me a week after finals to get back into the discipline of healthy eating and regular cardio and strength workouts. The holiday smells and sights all remind me of food rewards and ACK! Now I have the blinders back on but am still allowing myself two daily treats:
* air popped white popcorn with a shake of salt and spray oil
* sweet Clementine tangerines

What are you doing this holiday season to stay focused and blinded to all of the insidious food rewards out there?

-Debra (currently at 215 lbs, goal 205 by Dec 31st)

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  • Elinaberry
    Elinaberry Posts: 5
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    My favorite treat is Hershey's chocolate mint candy canes. They are 60 calories and are delicious!!!! Also they last a while so I get more satisfaction from them.
  • LastSixtySix
    LastSixtySix Posts: 352 Member
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    Great idea for a special-special treat!
  • iuew
    iuew Posts: 624 Member
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    i'm really trying to find some kind of balance with holiday food : not shunning it entirely, but also not overindulging in it.

    probably will have a big meal on Christmas; possibly one more if there's a work dinner. the treats at work are an endless temptation; there have been three full trays of fudge and cookies there this week. i managed to limit myself to a couple small pieces rather than not having any or having as much as i wanted.

    what we fight is not a personal weakness; it's evolution. for tens of thousands of years, the human condition has been feast or famine. much of the year, the amount of food available was seriously limited, so when it was there, those that wanted to survive had to eat as much as they possibly could. brains evolved to prefer the most calorie-dense foods imaginable. the daily act of finding food burned several thousand calories, and more days than not were calorie deficit days. metabolism became increasingly efficient.

    fast forward to the last 60 years or so : food is constantly available, and many jobs are sedentary. our brains and metabolism are still programmed for feast or famine, though. this is why we get heavy; not HFCS, artificial sweeteners, carbs, etc.

    it's tough to change your eating habits against instinct. but it's not impossible, and once you do it for long enough, it becomes second nature to a point. but it's important to see the problem for what it is instead of moralizing and distorting it into some sort of personal failure.

    as a molecular / microbiologist, that's my take on it.

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