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Then why bother?
If I'm having a free day, anything goes! ANYTHING!! Free means FREE!
Then I go back to what I was doing and lose any weight I gained plus some nore.
I agree with Eaton - if the day is 'free', then I'm going to enjoy it!
I admire people who merely see food as something required for life. I love food, I love for it to taste good and I want to enjoy every single bite! I usually succeed. I have found some healthy substitutes for my every day life (does anyone have a high protein, low calorie substitute for tortilla chips?)
I generally enjoy my 'free' days, especially if there's a family event involved. Events usually mean new and exciting foods to try! Yum....
I have found some healthy substitutes for my every day life (does anyone have a high protein, low calorie substitute for tortilla chips?)
The only snack I can think of that's sort of like that is pork rinds.
I do not like pork rinds.
So, what I do is take one of those little cups that you put shrimp sauce in and fill it with peanuts.
I like peanuts but they're not the lowest carb or calorie thing. The shrimp sauce cup controls the portion.
Lucy, I like food, too, especially Southern cooking. However, when you are faced with a health scare, whatever it might be, the importance of yummy goes right out the window. I don't want some prolonged and painful illness at the end of my life, which could have been prevented by better diet. Yummy is not that important IMHO.
I don't understand why you can't have "yummy" and eat well?
That's why so many people take the eat drink for tomorrow we may die attitude about weight management. Dieting equates to misery. A healthy lifestyle means kissing goodbye foods you may love.
I don't believe that should be the case at all. You should be able to enjoy a wide variety of foods, including those that are "diet no-nos". Unless you have a medical restriction, many people should be able to. What people have is their own specific definition of what a "good diet" is...and that's nice, but there's many variations of what comprises a good diet. I think I eat pretty well....no, I don't necessarily eat organic. I don't restrict myself. I continue to eat sugar. I eat potatoes, pasta, sweet potatoes, beans, whole grains... I enjoy my diet and my lifestyle, and I guess I have to if I want to make it a lifelong commitment. Because I eat these things and enjoy cheat days doesn't mean that my diet is bad and my health is crap.
maintaining a healthy weight confers a lot of benefits in and of itself. I attribute whatever health improvements to basically losing weight. once i dropped the pounds, my numbers improved dramatically. exercise made my heart stronger, eliminated my arrythmmia and improved my OA.
enjoying what i eat will always be important to me. it is what it is. i simply try and make good choices most of the time.
Yeah no way that pattern would ruin overall/long term goals/losses.
One must have discipline though, as I bolded yours above, to not extend the "cheat" beyond the meal/day. You have discipline as proven by your results (so cool, your photos are amazing) and I could prob do that too as I'm not really "into" food nor eat emotionally (though I prefer severe structure so never "cheat"; has more to do with my black/white nature than fear of eating too much) but I warrant cheats be they days or meals may cause problems for the folks who emotionally eat, or who have poor self discipline or a food addiction issue.
I think if one can do cheats and not OVERdo them it can be a great way to keep one on track without feeling deprived. I never saw food as a treat or a reward so for me this wouldn't be a thing but for many it surely is.
thank you... that's why i've posted my photos and "let it all out there"... maybe it inspires, seeing a real person and realizing that with time and patience, you can do it, at any age. I was over 220 lbs when I decided to do something about it.....I'm about 148-150 now.
and you're right...you can't overdo the cheats. once i saw that i wasn't losing, I stopped the twice a week days and now it's a permanent one day a week. i experiment with different things. sadly, i think i'm approaching menopause and now I have to be even more mindful of extra calories on the non cheat days. the non cheat days are pretty regimented tbh.
I just ate a delicious taco salad! Chicken, lettuce, cheese and salsa - both healthy and yummy!
I ate a protein bar earlier today, that was good. Freeze dried raspberries were pretty gross, so I threw them away and won't be buying them again. Some popcorn when I got home from the movies. Also a chocolate protein smoothie.
And nuts, three packages of 100 calorie nuts. I think I have to give up on nuts - they just aren't filling except in very high volumes. And at some point it's got to be considered 'cheating'. So I gave the nuts to the husband, and will simply buy myself a small can of nuts whenever I have a 'free' day or weekend (c'mon Easter!)
I'm going to finish the day eating an apple with peanut butter for dessert - within my calories for the day, all yummy and mostly healthy. Win win!
I just ate a delicious taco salad! Chicken, lettuce, cheese and salsa - both healthy and yummy!
I ate a protein bar earlier today, that was good. Freeze dried raspberries were pretty gross, so I threw them away and won't be buying them again. Some popcorn when I got home from the movies. Also a chocolate protein smoothie.
And nuts, three packages of 100 calorie nuts. I think I have to give up on nuts - they just aren't filling except in very high volumes. And at some point it's got to be considered 'cheating'. So I gave the nuts to the husband, and will simply buy myself a small can of nuts whenever I have a 'free' day or weekend (c'mon Easter!)
I'm going to finish the day eating an apple with peanut butter for dessert - within my calories for the day, all yummy and mostly healthy. Win win!
I could argue that chicken and cheese are not healthy. I hope the popcorn was air popped and not microwaved. Apparently there's something in the microwave bags that's carcinogenic. See:
I don't understand why you can't have "yummy" and eat well?
I did not say that you can't have yummy and eat well.
What I said was that yummy is not the primary concern if you have a serious health scare, like cancer, for example. What to do in order to survive becomes more important than whether something tastes good.
I did not say that you can't have yummy and eat well.
What I said was that yummy is not the primary concern if you have a serious health scare, like cancer, for example. What to do in order to survive becomes more important than whether something tastes good.
Ahh, I apologize! I clearly mis-read your statement. I really enjoy food, and I'm okay with that. I hope to never have a health scare that would alter how I eat!
Chicken and cheese are definitely healthy in my book. But some people do disagree, and that's okay.
As for the popcorn, it was microwave popcorn. But that's because we ended up with a box and I have a problem throwing food away. I would agree that microwave popcorn might not really qualify as healthy. But it sure was yummy! (and I do usually air pop my popcorn)
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that's why i've posted my photos and "let it all out there"... maybe it inspires, seeing a real person and realizing that with time and patience, you can do it, at any age. I was over 220 lbs when I decided to do something about it.....I'm about 148-150 now.
