of your diet to reward yourself. I have been on ww for 50 days and lost close to 30lb's. I have decided to take the weekend off but now i feel so horrible. I feel like all my hard work has went down the drain

There is *no* way that all your hard work and diligent efforts have gone down the drain within one weekend! This is about making lasting lifestyle changes and you are well on your way to doing just that!

I find it is important to be less rigid with yourself from time to time and in terming what you are doing a "diet" implies "good" and "bad", which only sets yourself up for failure and disappointment.

Try instead to look at this as your healthy lifestyle eating and fitness plan and make room for occational fluctuations (scheduled "breaks" from the routine) that have you getting right back in line with your more focused plan.

Make sense? Give yourself permission to be more free from time to time and then get right back to working on making the healthiest choices for you! Reducing your weight is just a pleasant side effect of your wellness plan at that point!

Nearly 30 pounds gone is nothing to scoff at! Good job!

Personally I do not take any time off. That only serves to hurt myself in my weight loss efforts. This is a lifestyle change not just a 'quick fix.' These things we are learning are for life.

With planning and utilizing your APs and FPs along with your TPs there is not reason to to go.

Once again these are my personal opinions because 1 day or 1 weekend can lead you back to your old eating habits and thus off program completely.

Okay, this is what I do. It always seems like during the week (in between meetings) I CRAVE something. Mexican food, chinese, french fries. I weigh in on Tuesday morning, so either for lunch on Tuesday or dinner that evening I have it. I have one meal, or one treat, and get it out of my system. I then go right back on program. I am on my 8th week of WW and have lost 18 pounds, so it seems to not be hurting me any. The point is to make it ONE MEAL....not an entire day or weekend.

I agree. You definately need to give yourself some breathing room, but not to any extreme. I have taken only a couple of breaks. On my anniversary, I didn't count points; on my birthday a couple of weeks ago; and Christmas Day. I still tried not to go too far off the deep end, but I decided I would allow those to be my food celebrations. Not, grandpa's birthday, aunt Jane's birthday, paper day, third Thursday, etc. There's always an occasion if we aren't careful.

Also, I save my FPs to allow a splurge every so often. I still have plenty this week, so I will probably have popcorn at the Movies tonight. I might have a 2 pt mini candy bar to feel like I'm splurging. But, like Kelly said, it's a new lifestyle. You don't earn time off for good behavior. You learn balance and find out how focused you really are.

You're doin' great. Keep up the good work! Gosh, talking about food gave me the munchies now. Great.

I've been really trying hard not to use food as a reward or, too much, as a stress reliever. This has been the most useful part of WW for me, because all the times I gained weight, that was exactly what I was doing. Have to take the kids to the doctor for shots--hit McDonald's on the way back to work. That sort of thing.

I've been doing WW for 20 weeks now and haven't taken any significant "breaks." I'm really just trying to use my extra points when I need them and plan ahead. The substitute leader at my last meeting had an interesting point to make: When you have a vacation or other special occasion or maybe just need a break, you can decide in advance how far you want to go. You can choose to just maintain for a couple of weeks, or only to let yourself go up a couple of pounds before getting back on plan, or whatever. Just think of it as a plan and a commitment, rather than a lapse.

I don't take time off, either. If I'm craving something for a couple of days, I'll work it into my points. I wait until I'm sure the craving won't pass on it's own, because it often does! But if I just have to have something like candy or chips, portion control is what saves me by bringing into the house only one serving at a time.

Don't worry too much about what happened, but have a plan so you can work around it the next time. Keeping in mind that this is for life will help, too.

As rewards, I have used non-edible things to keep me going. Jewelry is especially nice. But you could buy a cd, new nail polish, a book, or whatever goes along with your personal interests.

Btw, congrats at your success so far!!

I have one day a year that I absolutely go HOG WILD. Christmas! From the moment I get up to when my head hits the pillow I eat! I do not stray from plan at any other time of the year. Just the one day.

I have tricks though to stifle those cravings. I 're-create' foods I am craving. For instance, toasted subs...those commercials are killing me. I made a HUGE grilled portabella sub for about 6 pts!! It was humongous and worth it. Another craving I have is for an Egg McMuffin from McDonalds....I make my own with lite muffins, egg whites and FF Cheese and Boca Sausage and believe it or not it is wonderful! My daughter made Sweet Potato oven fries the other day and they were awesome!!

I used to attend meetings with a couple of close friends. After WI we would go out for supper and have whatever we wanted. Funny thing was when we counted it into our points most of the time we really hadn't gone over, or had gone over by very little.
I too, think we have to think of this as less of a diet as a lifestyle change. We need to be realistic and try to plan ahead for situations which we will encounter, eg: parties, birthdays etc. But we also need to learn to jump right back on the wagon and eat properly after we go off program

I don't really have a lot to add to all the great replies already made to this thread!

I just try to be REALISTIC. Like lots of people said here, it is about lifestyle change, so it has to be something you can LIVE with. It is realistic that once and a while you will go out to eat at your favorite restaurant, eat your favorite decadent dessert, or have Christmas dinner. Nobody should ever feel guilty about these things as long as they are occasional and are worked into a regular healthy eating plan. With the weekly allowance points, you can usually find that you stay within your weekly points and still enjoy your favorites!

Keep up the good work!