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Old 10-19-2004, 06:09 AM   #1  
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Help me with suggestions on how to deal with this. Is there some way to incorporate "no-no's" into this weight loss journey? I feel like it is unrealistic for me to say I will never have another cookie, icecream, burger, chip etc. I tried kind of having a treat day ~ that was too much, then a treat meal periodically ~ that worked a little better. I haven't got the hang of how to do it without messing up too badly. Self control is not my strong point.

Just got back from vacation, and I paid for that ~ scale went up some more. Now back to work.

OT ~ we had such a nice time. Our family was able to be all together for the first time in 4 years. My daughter her husband and little boy and my son all came here for the week from Texas. My other daughter came from Charlotte and brought her boyfriend. Then the last of the week, my mom and dad, sister, her boyfriend and her kids, and my sister-in-law and her kids all came down from Ohio. My kids got to meet their little cousins for the first time. Got to meet my sister's boyfriend and my daughter's boyfriend for the first time. They seem like nice guys. Got to spend some nice time with my little grandson ~ storing up hugs until the next time I get to see him (sadly ends up being only about once a year). Took lots of pics ~ can't wait for them to come back.
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Old 10-19-2004, 07:29 AM   #2  
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I have a very hard time incorporating treats into my plan. I do great if I avoid completely, but if I treat myself, especially if it has sugar, it usually sends my day in a downward spiral. I am a severe sugar addict, and I will crave sweets for days afterwards too. I haven't figured this one out myself yet lol.

It sounds like you had an awesome visit with your family
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Old 10-19-2004, 10:38 AM   #3  
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Raelynne - I'm totally a sugar addict too... lets start a help group It's SO hard to cut it out.. infact, I haven't done it yet..

Gayle - As for having treats, I manage to have them, and stay on my plan (which is WW), yesterday I was craving something sweet, so I had a small chocolate chip cookie with my lunch, I did manage to say within my points for the day (even with a tiny hamburger and small fries for dinner). I'm paying for it though, because I only lose about 1-2 pounds a week.
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Old 10-19-2004, 11:59 AM   #4  
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Well, depending what plan you are on, I would say try to find treats that work into your plan. For instance, I am on South Beach Diet and we are allowed 75 calories/day for on plan treats. Finding something that is a treat and 75 calories or less is a challenge, but it keeps us from eating a 200 calorie treat. No sugar added fudgsicles are 45 calories/each and sugar free jello cups are 10 calories each. There are also some different ice cream bars out there that are somewhere between 40-70 calories, you just have to look for them.

I've also recently discovered that you can make smoothies with cottage cheese. I know it sounds disgusting BUT it is pretty good and good for you. Since I'm sick at the moment and trying to cram my body with vitamin C, I bought the Crystal Light Sunrise so I put a few ice cubes in a blender, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, a dab of plain nonfat yogurt, some crystal light sunrise, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (not a protein shake mix, but a protein powder ) and blend blend until smooth. It kind of reminds me of those 50/50 orange cream bars, it fills me up, is good for me and is around 200 calories.

In general though, I have to avoid sugar or else I'll start craving sugar. So I stick to sugar free products and I think putting a calorie limit on treats helps me as well.
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Old 10-19-2004, 12:27 PM   #5  
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Did someone say sugar addict?? I am sooo bad. Sometimes I dream of regular coke with ice. A HUGE glass of it. Cookies are my downfall. If they are in the house, I've already eaten them. When I was little, my grandfather had a CB radio and my call sign was Cookie Monster.

The woman who writes The Skinny Daily said she didn't have a single treat until she reached her goal weight because she knew she could have them after she reached her goal weight. That is some amazing control. But I understand it! I mean, like Raelynn, if I have a sweet, my day spirals out of control.

Gayle, I wish I knew the answer. I think for me, it's going to be treats that I plan way in advance and then have a recovery plan for.
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Old 10-19-2004, 01:41 PM   #6  
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I think it totally depends on the person and their food issues. However, if you are a compulsive overeater (like I am) you may want to consider what I did.

First, I finally realized the difference between dieting and lifestyle change. But, I also was more committed than ever to get to a healthy weight. I approached it as a chronic disease that I had to manage (not cure) through food choices. While I made sure to acknowledge that someday I might be able to enjoy some favorites again, I also tried to make peace with the fact that, due to my condition, they might indeed be off limits, just as a person with a medical condition may no longer be able to have foods they enjoy.

Second, because of my compulsive nature and looooong-ingrained food habits, I knew that I had to go through a boot-camp period before I could trust myself to try treats. Yes, I did the on-plan substitute things -- fat-free sugar-free hot chocolate and the like -- but I tried to keep them to a minimum. I wanted to teach myself that WHATEVER it was I was craving was indeed something I could live without. I needed to live through the experience of doing without it and seeing that life went on. I tried to figure out WHY I wanted whatever it was I wanted, and then fill that need some other way. An on-plan food was the LAST resort. I think this is a crucial behavior-modification lesson. It's true that if this is a lifestyle change that we need to learn to manage all types of foods, and that no foods are good/bad. However, I think a period of detox was fairly crucial for me. I needed time without those things to learn about myself and build my healthy eating skills. Call it a re-training period, if you like. Sometimes it DID take a bit of steely will, but mostly it was about my committment. I hesitate to say it was "control" because that also sounds a bit compulsive, and I don't think I'm any stronger than anyone else necessarily. I was just committed to learning and retraining, and I knew this was a necessary step for me.

All the while I was careful to observe when I experienced a trigger. For example, on my plan peanut butter is a perfectly acceptable food to use as fat. However, if I have peanut butter in the house I cannot leave it alone. So, peanut butter is banned from my house. I remember eating an in-season navel orange as my fruit after dinner, and it was so good, so sweet, so wonderful that my immediate, nearly unconscious reaction was, "oooh I need another one." I was halfway out of the chair before I realized that, even though eating another orange would be perfectly acceptable on my plan, it would have been giving in to that compulsive voice and I did not want to do that. So, even though every cell in my body was screaming for another orange, I didn't eat one.

When I DID start enjoying the occasional treat, it was at least 6 months into my program, if not more. And, I made sure they were very occasional and watched myself closely for trigger reactions and increased cravings. There are foods and food situations where I have a hard time controlling it, so I just don't partake at all. SHOULD I be able to have a small bit and enjoy it and call it a well-rounded lifestyle? Well, sure. But, I know myself well enough to understand it's better to stay away altogether than risk a trigger.

You'll have to learn what works for you by trial and error. But, I'm convinced that if I had not gone through that period of abstinence, that I would have never developed the knowledge and the skills to deal with treats successfully in the first place. I now go out semi-regularly, and indulge myself now and then with a treat. But, I don't have a "schedule" -- again, that's a compulsion talking in my view -- and I recognize times I feel vulnerable and I stay away. I have no problem skipping a party or a work potluck or an invitation to eat out with a friend if I feel that the event would be hard to control.
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Old 10-19-2004, 02:09 PM   #7  
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Funniegrrl,

Wow, you sound like you really have it all together. Hats off to you.

I understand how glynne feels. I feel like I need to have something sweet at least once a day. For about a month, I only ate fruits and such for treats. Now I have started incorparating fat free sherbert and fat free/sugar free jello and it seems to do the job, although last night i wanted more sherbert so bad, but I had just eaten some. Like funnie said,.. i wanted it so bad, but I did not give in to it. Instead I had a wheat sandwich with a piece of lowfat bologna and a glass of water. I figured it was better than the sherbert.

I think alot of us struggle with sweets, I know i do, but I try to at least make better choises that I would have 4 months ago.
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Old 10-19-2004, 03:12 PM   #8  
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You know, my take is slightly different, although it's probably evolving as we speak . While the first few months I didn't let a treat near my mouth (even an "acceptable" treat), because I too needed a period to sort of detox, I am now trying to teach myself to "deal" with food that's generally considered off-plan. For instance, the other night my hubby brought home Breyer's ice cream. Now, the obese Jen would have written herself off as doomed and eaten half a gallon. But because I'm trying to teach myself how to eat like a thin person, I said, "OK. I will have one scoop." It was within my calories/fat for the day, so I scooped it into a small bowl, ate it verrrrryyy slowly, enjoyed it VERY MUCH, and then was done with it.

While I know this won't work for everybody, I really do think it's been important for me to realize that I'm not always going to be able to insulate myself completely from temptation. It's not the end of the world, the end of my "diet" or the end of my healthy lifestyle if I incorporate a treat now and then (and I really do mean ONCE IN A WHILE). Maybe others will disagree, but for me, not having an all or nothing mindset is really key to making this work.
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Old 10-19-2004, 04:15 PM   #9  
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My theory and my hope is that our tastes change as we eat better. I've always had an affinity for high carb foods, good and bad. At a point in college, I mostly ate canned pineapple, at another point I mostly ate mashed potatoes. A couple years ago, I was mostly eating fruit and frozen berries. Actually, I still can't eat bluberries because they are a trigger food for me and will cause some intense cravings. Also, I had a hard time eating veggies, no matter how I tried.

Something changed for me though, I started figuring easy to eat veggies with low calorie dips. I then was able to incorporate more veggies into my diet so that now I eat 4-6 servings of veggies a day. It was actually a process of giving up fruits and other sweets for a period of time that I was able to develop this habit. So I do believe a detox phase was important for me to retrain myself to eat other things. The same thing has happened to me with lowering my fat intake, now I find fatty meats and added fat unappealing.

Honestly, I don't plan to every have another french fry, potato chip, candy bar, full fat/sugar ice cream or cookie again. That is to not say that I wouldn't have other things. I recently went to dinner with a friend and I SHARED a dessert. Do you know how amazing that is? I didn't even eat my entire portion. I will say that I also busted my butt at the gym after that. We have to develop better habits in order to lose weight and keep the weight off. I would say choose your treats and make them a special occassion rather than a regular event. (not that I'm saying anyone here does that) I've been treating myself for 29 years, so much it got me to over 360 lbs at one point, so I really don't need treats that badly.
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Old 10-19-2004, 07:42 PM   #10  
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I look at it like Jennifer does. If it's something I like I will eat it but only in small portions and withing my calories. That is the bigest reason I like counting calories. I can have things I like without feeling guilty.
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Old 10-19-2004, 09:13 PM   #11  
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Just a quick clarification & expansion of what I said earlier. Nelie, I definitely agree with you that it's important to create new habits to replace some of the less healthy/unhealthy ones. And while I have begun incorporating some *sensible* treats, there are some things I will never eat again, either. I was thinking about this the other day when reading some stuff on the Maintainers Forum. For instance: Little Debbies? Complete nutritional trash. Candy bars? They don't even taste good to me anymore. Plate upon plate of white pasta? Nah, only whole wheat pasta really appeals to me now. I have replaced all those things with healthier choices like fruit, whole grains, fresh veggies.

But am I going to go the rest of my life without eating an occasional single scoop of good ice cream? Never going to have a tiny morself of fine dark chocolate? Not on your life. But that's just me .
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Old 10-20-2004, 01:21 AM   #12  
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The only thing I completely banned from my diet is non-diet soda. Soda was my biggest downfall. I used to drink a 2-liter bottle of soda per day. Now I drink water, Crystal Light, and diet soda. Otherwise, I let myself have a treat now and then, as long as I can fit it in my calories for the day.
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Old 10-20-2004, 01:44 AM   #13  
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Here's a list of my treats. WW Chocolate Cakes and Carrot Cake They are 1 point. I also just found Light Hostess Twinkies, Crumb Cake and Cup Cakes. I also buy skinny cow ice cream sandwiches. I found that I really don't eat them. Because I know I can. If that makes any sense. I think I've eaten 1 or maybe 2 in a month. Usually at TOM. For some reason I feel I need to have one then. It depends on how strong you think you are. Not everything fits every person. You need to find what works out best for you. You said you can't do with out treats. In my mind neither can and just having them in the house for an emergency treat fix makes me able to pass them up. I'm not sure if you know what I mean.
But I figure it's better to eat one low cal treat then go wild and eat one or more full of calories. I also pick treats that I feel don't taste diet. I do make a point to eat them slow and to really give some thought on if I really do need or want another piece.
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Old 10-20-2004, 01:50 AM   #14  
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my weakness is smores. i just found that quaker, i believe, has smore granola bars! they are like 2 WW points and they are sooooooo yummy!!!

Last edited by jkfla; 10-20-2004 at 01:53 AM. Reason: i can't spell
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