RIP, Friday Treat

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  • It has long been a tradition of mine that on friday I can have a "treat"--something I have been craving but not letting myself have during the week. In addition to this, for lunch I can order whatever I want. Generally we go to Tio Leo's Mexican Restaurant, so my choice is probably going to be some form of white flour (tortillas) and cheese.

    Two weeks ago I started imagining donuts during the week. So, on friday last, I had a donut and a few bites of another. They were very very sweet and seemed at the same time dry and powdery. I shrugged it off.

    This last week I have been devoting myself to the idea of eating plenty of Superfoods every day, and really pushing fruits and veggies. I have felt healthy and strong and vital this week, and quite content with the foods I have been eating.

    But still, it was friday! And friday I can have a treat! After I finished my Pilates session, I stopped at a local donut shop. I wanted donuts! (Picture a pouty small girl here, and you'll have the attitude.) So I got three. Took them home, got a drink, got my laptop, sat down to catch up and eat my donuts.

    And I discovered that...well...I don't actually LIKE donuts. I had a bite of the apple fritter...no, DANG, too sweet! The oldfashioned...just...bleh. Something tasted...wrong. I broke off a piece of the buttermilk bar...sour and dry. I tried them all again. No, no...maybe. So resolutely I ate the buttermilk bar. I was going to have my treat! No matter if I enjoyed it or not...

    I threw the rest away. I spent the morning being tired and restless and feeling like I wanted "something", but not eating anything more. Calorie balance, you know...after all, it's just calories in vs calories out, right?

    Then we went to lunch. After debating a salad with chicken and beans and salsa and cheese, I ordered a crispy cheese quesadilla because it was Treat Day. I have never had that at this place but it came as a flat flour tortilla covered with cheese that had been broiled until it melted. Hmm. Okay. So I ate it. I was not satisfied. But I ate it. All of it. Trying to find that satisfaction. That sense that I had been indulged, if you will. That heavy, content, warm feeling of a full, satisfied body.

    Eh. Not happening.

    I drove to the UC library to pick up Superfoods RX. On the way I was debating stopping to find another 'treat', because I was not satisfied. I was not hungry, but I also was not content. I still felt like I wanted something. I didn't stop, though, just picked up my book and came home.

    I've been sitting here and reading the introduction. It feeds (hah! PUN! ) directly into my belief that human bodies evolved to eat certain foods, and that the only tools our bodies have to work with to make themselves stronger are the foods we ingest. I will have to give this book serious study time, and most probably buy a copy of my own.

    So anyway. Before I seriously settled in, I decided to get a snack. I finished lunch 2 hours ago, but I still was restless. Wanting. Craving. I got up and went into the kitchen, and looked at my lovely strawberries. They still looked beautiful. Kiwi was ripe. So I washed and topped my strawberries, and peeled and chunked my kiwi. I grabbed a bottle of water and came through again to sit down and read.

    I've just finished about 1.5 cups of strawberries and 1 kiwi fruit. My body is singing, and I am content.

    Next friday for a treat, I'll go get my toenails painted.
  • I LOVE this post!!!!

    I get so excited when I read about the changes everyone is experiencing - it's just so amazing to realize that we're slowly retraining our bodies to love all the things that are good for us, and go "blech!" to all the things that aren't! It's a change that is taking place while we focus on all we CAN eat, rather than what we CAN'T - I'm surprised every day by how simple and easy this all is. Before, I used to look at "only fruit" for dessert as my punishment for being on a diet - now, I look forward to it, and enjoy every bite. I love how it makes me feel The shift in mind-set that occurs as part of this WOE is a really powerful thing, if you ask me.

    You've got to give golden kiwis a try, if you can find them!
  • I love this thread, too! I was at the drugstore today after work (Friday = "treat day" for me, too), and I decided that a small bite of dark chocolate would be superfood-appropriate as well as satisfying. I searched and searched, and couldn't find a small single-serving size of dark chocolate. My options were bite-sized milk chocolate, or a monstrous 500-calorie bar of dark chocolate.

    Now, I know from last week that I can't purchase more than one serving of dark chocolate, because I will eat it very promptly. Even after 68 pounds of good habits, I still can't moderate sugar or chocolate. Or at least not consistently. So I passed. *sigh*

    Maybe someday I'll be one of those people who has chocolate in their home but "just isn't in the mood for chocolate today". Not yet.

    Well, I'm off to satisfy my treat craving with some grapes!

    Golden kiwis? Yum.
  • I love this post too. For me Sunday is treat day. Last week I had a peanut butter cookie. It was good, but really, really sweet. I ate about 1/2 of it. I can't say I don't think about french fries, especially if I smell them, but I have the feeling that a few of them would probably result in a yucky tummy. What I can't decide is if these are physical, mental or both changes.
  • Quote: What I can't decide is if these are physical, mental or both changes.
    I was very surprised today by myself. I was throwing a little mental tantrum about the fact that my treat was 'bad", so I deserved another treat. Thankfully I heard myself and caught the urge before I acted on it! I know physically the treat foods today didn't taste good to me, but mentally I still wanted them.

    When I dreamt up the idea of getting my toenails painted, the petulant little girl in my head stomped her foot and started whining. That's when I turned to the strawberries and kiwi, and she was quieted. Huh. So maybe there was a physical need for something? I honestly don't know.

    I DO know this: I'm devoting myself to eating superfoods (lemon herb chicken, mixed salad with olive oil/garlic/sun dried tomato dressing, steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots for dinner!), and I'll get my nails painted next friday (couldn't today, one is broken and needs to heal more before it's touched). I'll have to redefine my definition of a "cheat meal". Apples are great this time of year...
  • Quote: My body is singing, and I am content.
    Yes!
  • That post was insanely incredible! I loooooooved it! And I completely GET it!

    I bought my girls Boston Market for dinner tonight: chicken, mixed veggies, mac & cheese & sweet potatoes. And after I paid for it and fed them in the car, I went BACK in the drive thru to get BROWNIES for all of us! I hit my 10 pound weightloss mark (4 from doing Atkins & 6 from eating SuperFoods/Calorie Counting) yesterday and figured I'd treat myself to this one indulgence! It was a chocolate chip brownie, topped with caramel and pecans. Now, I'm not much of a caramel person. I like my brownies with nuts and nothing else. But I bought it ANYWAY. I ate one little smidgen of a corner and I was done. It did not compare to the sheer ecstacy that my cherries or my nectarines or my low fat strawberry yogurt give me! I didn't eat another bite and my 1 year old didn't seem to want any of it either. So, I gave it to my younger cousin. And I stuck to my calorie goal for the day. Actually, I came in way under. I am about to log off now to go enjoy my yogurt and 2 squares of dark chocolate, for a total caloric intake today of 1495!

    Do you guys notice that when you are about to eat a junk 'treat', you tend to scoff it down rather quickly? But when you eat a SuperFood 'treat', like fresh fruit, you tend to sit down, slice it up, present it beautifully on a plate or in a bowl, and take your time to savor the aroma, the texture, the shape of it and then you sincerely enjoy every...single...bite???

    Hmmmmm..... I can't believe what we've been believing were real 'treats', when the REALLY REAL treats were dangling from trees just waiting for us to pick them! Gotta love that mother nature! She knows how to please our tastebuds and more importantly, our hearts, minds and souls!
  • Last night I went out for a meal. Because I had a long run (20 miles) planned for today I wasn't bothered about calories or carbs so I had a chickpea burger with chips, and I can't begin to describe how disappointed I was, particularly with the chips (fries). They just tasted stodgy and tasteless, and not at all like a treat. I was very surprised! The same goes for pizza too, unless it's a really nice thin base with lots of fresh veggies on top - the thought of something thick and stodgy smothered in fatty meat or cheese just doesn't appeal.
  • Quote: Do you guys notice that when you are about to eat a junk 'treat', you tend to scoff it down rather quickly? But when you eat a SuperFood 'treat', like fresh fruit, you tend to sit down, slice it up, present it beautifully on a plate or in a bowl, and take your time to savor the aroma, the texture, the shape of it and then you sincerely enjoy every...single...bite???
    Absolutely!! Don't forget the joy in the experience of even harvesting or buying it! Slowing down at the market to really take in the colors, textures, and smells of fresh produce.
  • Jayde, speaking of harvesting, I got ALL 50 of the books I ordered! Well, it's only 6, but who's counting??? There are some really great ideas in them! There's even a way to build a 4 tier strawberry plant in 4 different size pails. What a fun project! I'm working on a list of fruits and veggies that we'd like to plant. I'll have to wait until Spring to plant a lot of them, but there are Fall ones that we can start now. And don't get me started on herb gardening!
  • So today it is my DD's 2nd birthday. I decided that I was going to go off plan today and not even think about it. You know so I would not feel guilty. So we went to a buffett place that my in-laws really like to eat at. I ended up with a salad (that is what sounded good) the salad consisted of, fresh spinach, peas, broccolli, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, cucumbers and a lite vinegarette. And then I went back after eating this nice salad and got myself baked chicken and lasagne. I ate the baked chicken breast and left the lasagne on the plate (it did not taste good, looked good but yuck!), so then I go over to the deserts. I came back with strawberries, and a cream cheese brownie. I ate the strawberries, took one bite of the brownie and thought it was disguisting.

    I did not even mean to and ended up with lots of superfoods and nothing else. The rest did not sound good or taste good. I can not beleive this. It is amazing.

    Trish
  • Quote: It is amazing.
    So true! I wish everyone were a part of this life changing WOE. It is amazing, indeed.
  • Sounds like you are really ready to dig in, Hope!
  • Am I missing something?
    What is WOE?
    W = whole?
    O = ?
    E = ?
  • Quote: What is WOE?
    W = whole?
    O = ?
    E = ?
    Way of Eating