treated myself to a dinner at an indian buffet last night. i know treats are supposed to help with long term weight loss in the end, but i can't help but feel guilty about eating at a buffet. Though I limited myself to only one plate.. it was one heaping plate! haha..

Do any of you guys have stories with your once a week treat cheats? why does it make me feel soooo guilty?? well, maybe not guilty, but i feel like i'll gain back everything that i've worked for the past week.

I don't plan treats, I wait for them to happen naturally. For example a friend asking me to go for dinner, an event that takes me to a pub or a place with food, hanging out with a friend and getting some snacks to watch a film with. Having a once a week cheat day can be damaging simply because you can look forward to it, and once you get to that day you can overindulge because you've been thinking about it so much.

I don't like to think that cheat days or treats should be a reward for anything, just normal social occasions. It can get bad if you can't control when to stop and feel guilty about it. Life happens! You've got to live and have fun!

Some people need strict routines to help them lose weight, but for people like me weight loss is a life style change. 90% of the time I exercise and eat well, the 10% of the time I'm socialising I might have 1 soda or treat myself to ice cream, and I'm still losing weight. As long as I don't let bad eating and laziness get into my normal routine I'll be fine!

I don't usually do once a week treats because I always store them for a weekend day, and I end up going bonkers for the whole weekend. I've decided for myself that I do better with a once a month treat, and for that treat, it's a beer and a HUGE burger....or something else amazing like Thai food.

But for others, I think that a once a week treat is a great thing. A little pat on the back for doing good the whole week.

food is food for me. There are no treats, there is no bad or good food. It just exists. I look to see which foods will help me towards my goals more than others and I try to choose those. I also see how food makes me feel and choose foods that give me energy and make me feel good.

If I want something I will have it. If I don't, then I won't.

I don't believe in rewarding myself of healthy eating with a treat.
I also have been unable to have a small moderation of a treat, so for now I could never have a cheat meal, or cheat day.
If I really want something I'll try to work it in, or make a healthier version but usually after that effort I find I don't really want it that bad anyways.

I end up doing poorly with treats. I'm really trying to cut them out but its tough. Oh well, discipline and all that I suppose...

Reistrella, thanks for your insight. It's true, life happens.. Gotta live it naturally and joyfully. :-)

And Samma, I think I do go bonkers if I do have those treat days. I look forward to it in order to go bonkers. I think I'll just try to eat healthy every day and if I do end up going out with friends, so be it! Haha

in the diet i'm doing now, you HAVE to have a cheat day... supposed to be once a week, or once every two weeks, but you have to do it... there are good things and bad things to having a cheat day... the good things can be that, if you know that you have a cheat day coming up, you will be exceptionally good during the week, knowing that you can just eat that stuff on your cheat day. some of the bad things though, for people with less self-control, it might be hard to come "off" the cheat day.... but if you can do that, it's actually good to have a cheat day, or cheat meal. cuz you don't get fat from just one day of too many calories... it'll just go in and out... you might bloat up a bit but it'll go away.... if you keep at it for several days, that's when it hurts you... but if it's just one day, or one meal, the calorie spike serves to confuse your body (a bit the same way that calorie-cycling does) and trick it into burning more calories... if you do it properly, you'll never plateau.

of course it can be hard.

i think personally that it's much better to have a planned cheat day, than impromptu ones when a friend calls and whatnot... because then you can end up having a lot of impromptus, and "a little bit here, a little bit there" isn't the way you're gonna lose weight, if that's really your goal.

anyways. good luck! and the main thing to remember is that, no matter how you cheat, just get back on the horse! often we feel discouraged after cheating, and that's why we give up... but if we just get back on then it becomes just a little bump in the road!

Thanks, KawaiiCandie, for your words of encouragement :-) I have a wings date coming up.. I was gonna flake out on my friends and not go, but now I might go after all!

I like to have a "treat" day when I reach a goal but my "treat" is something like a mani/pedi or a a movie or a new shoes. I'm trying to train my self that there are other ways to be rewarded than with food.

Ive been doing so good since I've started a month ago, that I do a weekend treat. Either Saturday or Sunday I eat something small. So far its mostly been a cupcake.
I definitely need it, to give me something to look forward to. I definitely think it helps me too. Like Kawaii said, it makes it easier during the week, because you know you can eat something during the weekend.

I used to let myself have 'treats'. Nothing too bad, mostly just frozen yogurt. Then I found myself having it alllllll the time, and while, frozen yogurt isn't a *horrible* treat I just found myself getting out of control with them. I'm still at the place where I could easily devour an entire pint of ice cream or half a cake in one sitting given the opportunity. So I've had to stop all treats for the month of Feb in an effort to break myself of the cravings. I've managed to do the same with fast food.

I pretty much agree with Riestrella - I don't plan treats but I allow myself events / indulgences. If I'm going to a bar with friends I get a couple beers and eat a few french fries. As long as it's not every night and I'm careful at other meals, being able to 'relax' a bit for fun social events keeps from taking the fun out of it.

Other than that if I find myself craving something for days obsessively I'll indulge - it doesn't actually happen that often - but for example I kept craving buffalo chicken dip all weekend a couple weeks back. I finally went and got a small container of premade, a bag of chips, and just went for it. Very tasty, ate about half the chips and threw the rest away. No regrets, and I've stopped obsessing about it.

I used to give myself weekly cheat days but I finally decided it actually made me think about food more because I would think about what I could eat on that day. This seems like a much more casual/relaxed approach that is still working for me.

My weight loss is probably slower for it (?) but I've been able to stick with the plan for longer than ever (8 mos), don't feel deprived, and don't feel concerned/upset that I "have to eat this way forever". We'll see if it becomes a problem as I get closer to goal.

Yup.. I eat a choc truffle once a day. Its 60 cals about 4 g of carbs. Its sooo good but im trying to stay from it this week. At the moment Im having pizza delivered to my house. Lol Im gonna spend the rest of the week making up for it.. but so worth it lol.

I do the same thing! During Christmas, while I was buying treats for friends and family, I treated myself to a lovely set of lotions and cuticle creams. In other times I've treated myself to a new bottle of nail polish, new hairbands, new blouse, etc.

I'm trying to learn how to reward myself in ways other than food. My family, mom in particular, ALWAYS rewarded me with junk food as a child and I think that's caused my view of food to be a bit warped. I'm trying to fix that!

If I do opt for a food treat I try to pick something healthy but fancy. My favorites are crepes with fresh strawberries or yogurt with slices of fruit arranged like a flower, etc. I'm very visual about food presentation so I feel like I'm really treating myself when I eat something pretty, odd as that may sound!