In today’s episode I’m answering your questions about food rewards, earned indulgences and cheat meals. I’ll be sharing my perspective on whether or not you should use food as a reward and how to balance strategic indulgences that reflect a healthy relationship with food versus talking yourself into being inconsistent. Where is that line and how do you find it?
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Food Rewards, Earned Indulgences & Cheat Meals
The first thing I recommend you do is evaluate whether or not these strategies (food rewards, earned indulgences and/or cheat meals) are working for you:
- Is there a whole bunch of negative emotional wrapped up in it?
- Are you limiting your results or slowing your progress?
- Are they a slippery slope? Does a treat turn into overkill or a binge?
From there, let’s look at the idea of “earning” an indulgence. In the episode, we go into a whole lot more detail, but I want you to think about the following:
Would an alcoholic celebrate sobriety with a shot of tequila?
Alright, you’re not an alcoholic.
But would you celebrate your child’s great grades by suggesting he give himself a break from the next test? Or take a week off of school?
Resources
How to Overcome Fear of Missing Out
Hi Elizabeth,
When you first started your journey I recall reading that for the first year you allowed yourself a cheat day. That’s how you were able to lose the first 50 pounds. Did you open that up to a full cheat day or did you have limits around it? I know you got to a point where you were in a plateau and to bust through you gave up cheat days…and in fact weren’t getting the excitement out of them any longer as losing and becoming stronger actually replaced that feeling. Please tell me more.
Hi Leslie,
I know I did that for a while, I’m not quite sure how long. As for limits, I ate what I wanted but I didn’t eat as if I’d never eat again. It wasn’t a binge day, for certain. It wasn’t so much that I hit a plateau, I just realized that those days made me feel awful and eating well makes me feel amazing and I wanted to feel amazing 🙂 At least that’s my recollection.