[VeggieManJoe]

i am now 1 week into what i intend to make a life-long revised eating regime. at todays morning weigh-in i had lost 6 lbs in that 1 week. i had expected that, as anytime i have gone on a "diet" the weight loss was always rapid at first. from here on in, i expect slow but more-or-less steady results.


i wonder ... do you "reward" yourself (with food) whenever you go a week/month without veering from the plan or when you achieve a certain mini-goal ? my gut feeling is that this is a bad idea because i feel that i am addicted to sugar (in the form of baked goods) and that a "reward" would only serve to re-kindle that addiction. on the other hand, weight-watchers, from what i understand, doesn't specifically ban ANY food, rather, they effectively minimize the use of rich/junk foods via the points system (note: i am not a member of weight watchers but their system seems sound to me).


looking forward to comments from those that have been at this a while.

thanks,

joe

[BillBlueEyes]

Hi Joe,

You make a good point. It's great to look forward to a reward for sticking to our eating plan or exercise plan for a period - particularly if the scale shows desired movement.

What those of us try to do who are using the strategies of Dr. Judith Beck, is think of a non-food reward. A book; a movie; new winter gloves - whatever. Seems to work for me to get away from responding to my little brain's thought that a chocolate bar or Dunkin' Donut was just what I deserved. Sugar rewards are the worst for me. Makes me want . . . more sugar.

My last reward was three new flannel shirts in my new size. I had continued wearing the old shirts that now drooped from my shoulders - looking like a street person who wore whatever he could grab from the church free box, LOL.

Good luck with your plan, "slow but more-or-less steady" - sounds like a winning strategy.

[bogglesnot]

Hi, I lost 4 Stone in 6 weeks by drinking tea every time I felt hungry. And I only had 1 meal a day..... Try that and you will lose weight....

[ange82much]

Hi Joe, ummmm, do i reward myself? Sort of i suppose. When i've had an on-plan week i allow myself a couple of glasses of wine a couple of times over the weekend - but when weekend rolls around i search my internal innermost wants and try to assess at the time whether i actually really want the wine or not - sometimes i find that i'm not that bothered, so i don't have it, and other times i really fancy a glass so i'll indulge.

I'm a calorie counter (in theory, except i'm familiar enough with it now that i tend to eyeball stuff rather than actually counting), so that's the same principle as WW in that nothing is off-limits, which i think is a good idea. I"m only 3lb off my target weight now (hoping to finish before Christmas), and i'm shortish, so my calorie allowance is pretty low, which means that i have to eat 'clean' 95% of the time otherwise i'm going to be hungry, so i need to be very picky about 'rewards'. In general i tend to be very strict whilst i'm losing, get the job done, then settle in to maintenance - i'm too impatient to plod away at it slowly, i want the job complete so that i'm not wasting emotion wishing that i was a different weight. So in other words, i'll usually wait till where i want to be before slacking off.

That's all very personal of course. Different approaches suit different people. My overall advice would be to decide what suits you and stick to what you've chosen to do (the way NOT to do it, is to decide an approach and then break your own rules!)

[Isharasli97]

Called it cheat day ..but not really cheat day 🤣

[VeggieManJoe]

bill ... thanks for that. i hadn't even thought of the non-food reward. that was a trick that i used back in my quit-smoking days.

boggle ... i know myself well enough to know that 1 meal a day won't work for me, but drinking tea (and water) is always a better idea than reaching for junk food. thanks.

ange ... i am also a calorie counter, but like you, it's mostly be "eyeballing" . i have always had this built-in calculator in the back of my brain and have used it effectively all my life to manage my personal finances.

isharas ... i think i get what you are saying ... if it's a planned cheat day it's really not a cheat day. i think i will reserve those days for thanksgiving, xmas, family birthdays, etc.