Remember the fudge debacle a page back? Where I made fudge and ate some and then threw it in the freezer? Well I dug it out today for company and apparently it's my Achilles heel! So I stupidly ate about 5 pieces. It reminds me of Faraday and his imagined apple pie. Ridiculous! I know better and imagine I will feel like crap later. I already feel like crap, mentally. To add insult to injury, I hit my lowest weight on the scale yet, this morning and used the FIFTH holes on my belt buckle instead of the first. I can't really figure out why I'm sabatoging myself in this way. The company is actually still here and I'm upstairs having a break and typing this to all of you.
Also of interest: the company noticed my weight loss and were the first to comment on it. And there I am in the kitchen, sneaking fudge! D*mn Sugar Dragon is still very large for me :-/
Some strategies:
1. Get it out of your house. If you have to go buy it often times this is enough of a deterrent.
2. Pause before each bite. Eat slow and be deliberately mindful. Don't judge yourself or be ashamed, just mindful.
3. Replace the craving with something healthier but rewarding (listen to a favorite song, have some tea, whatever you love)
4. Breath and smile :)
+1 to what frugaldoc says. We've gone over lots of strategies and replacement items, I like frugaldoc's quick summary (sometimes my verbosity really gets in the way. :-( :-) )
'67 and all;
I can easily imagine the feeling when you are sitting there with that fudge in front of you. You are trapped and there is no escape. No substitute foods handy or at the ready, nothing that can even come close to the potential feeling and reward of...The Fudge.
I propose that there is RIGHT AND WRONG way to cheat. DW and I discovered this and we believe it helps minimize the severity of the cheat. We reserve this for those times (unusual as they might be) that you simply have to cheat and can't get around it. Read what I've got to say and see if it makes sense. Constructive Criticism is absolutely welcome.
Wow...I got very verbose here. Please forgive me. I'll re-edit over time to try to lessen the verbage and sharpen the ponts....
Notes before I explain this:1) It's not a method for breaking the eating lifestyle constantly. We use this once every six months for birthdays and Christmas Day. This is a method of last resort - when you are "pinned down" and see no other way around the Offending Food.
2) You must still EARN IT TO BURN IT. Exercise it off as quickly as possible.
3) Still try to use your go-to keto compliant foods to avoid the Bad Food.
4) Always get back on the wagon in full force after the cheat and stay strict afterward.
5) If there is some external thing that CAUSES you to cheat, you've got to identify and deal with THAT, too. Mom shows up and plops a pound of forbidden fruit in front of you? At some point, try to have a loving conversation with her about that. Boss makes you want to eat a container of ice cream? Figure out how to fix that problem and move forward from there. Kids dragging shitfood into the house? Gotta change that one too.
Here's the idea:
1) You
identify and acknowledge beforehand whatever food it is you cannot resist.
You come to terms with that food by realizing it and accepting the weakness and the problem it presents. In other words, you spend time thinking about the food and visualizing it while it is not in front of you, while you are strong and while maintaining your correct eating style. Let the food be in your mind and don't work to cast it out. Let it serve as a motivator...let it serve as positive reinforcement for the next step below (2).
2) Schedule your EARN IT AND BURN IT ahead of time if possible. That's the best option. If you can't, schedule it after the cheat as soon as possible. This is practical if you are tracking both foods and exercise in LoseIt or MyFitnessPal.
3) When the time comes to consume the food,
get the smallest reasonable portion of it that you can. BEWARE: YOU decide that. Not mom or spouse or kids or anyone. If mom drops a big 'ol slices of cake in front of you, PLAN to eat the smallest portion that can satisfy the craving and not one bite more. Plan to purposefully waste as much as possible if you are given some insane portion.
4) Take that first bite and
make it last as long as possible.
5)
PROHIBIT YOURSELF from feeling the guilt while you eat. We're gonna be honest about our cheating and not try to make up for it by letting the guilt come on quickly. GUILT does not clear us of the cheat, it's only the "flag" that we are cheating. That's the only purpose the guilt can serve.
6)
GET INTO THE MOMENT as you eat the cheat food. The Buddhists talk about "being in the moment". It's vitally important that you BE IN THE MOMENT as you cheat. If you are gonna cheat...DO IT IN FULLNESS, don't quickly ram down mass quantities of the forbidden food in secret. Get ONE PIECE. Don't ram it down and swallow as quickly as you can. Deny the urge to rapidly swallow.
7)
CHALLENGE YOURSELF to make the tiny portion last as long as possible. Focus on your mouth and having a small, small bite in your mouth. Let the taste and texture persist in your mouth and truly experience what the bite FEELS LIKE. Make each and every bite last as long as possible.
The purpose is to wring as much pleasure out of the smallest possible portion!!!!!ALERT: NO DISTRACTIONS ALLOWED while you are eating the cheat food. Don't talk, don't get up, don't move around, don't call down the kids, don't respond to anything. Anyone who tries to engage you in talking is interrupting your "cheat moment".
8)
You don't have to engage anyone in discussion about your cheat. You don't have to justify, you don't have to talk about it. If someone wants to and tries, just smile at them as you have the food in your mouth. (I have indeed done this and it's not as rude as it might seem.)
9)
When done, don't sit there like a toad. Get up, remove the plate and utensils, put them in the sink or the dishwasher or whatever. After all, you are DONE, right? Change the context and move forward with the social event, whatever it is. Go back to your compliant foods/drink immediately if you can't get up and go exercise. Tea, cola, water, whatever.
WHY IN HELL AM I TELLING YOU "HOW TO CHEAT"? Because there ARE times when we all get pinned down and can't escape, don't have our go-to foods, are stressed in the moment or some unusual circumstance that's forcing us into a scenario we aren't prepared to deal with.
You might say "WTF Faraday?!?!? I'm a sugar addict, can't you tell?" Well, that depends. If you fall off the wagon and can't get back on, ok, you are a sugar addict. In that case, you haven't changed your eating lifestyle and you aren't gonna change based on anything I say.
BUT: if you are successfully living your chosen eating lifestyle and you get pinned down, you have one of two choices:
a) Don't cheat. In that case, congratulations!
b) You know you are gonna cheat and can't stop it. In that case, SIN PROPERLY. Don't try to "buffer the sin" with guilt or eating fast or anything that minimizes the event. Let the event happen, and TEST YOURSELF to see HOW SMALL OF AN AMOUNT WILL PROVIDE SATISFACTION.
What happens when you do it this way? Your cheats get smaller and fewer, not larger and more frequent. My cheats are damn near ridiculously small compared to what they used to be and they get smaller and smaller with time. I use to ram down 3 or 4 pints of stout without thinking about it and without feeling truly satisfied. Now I can do a six ounce pour and be happy with what I get from it. Now I can eat a slender little petite "woman's slice" of cake and be extremely satisfied. (Cake isn't my cheat food, but you get the idea. My machismo is no longer tied up in how big of a piece of cake I can eat....)
Please, let's discuss this - please tell me what you think.
Christmas Day is coming, for us poor unfortunates in Christian Society. That's the deepest, darkest hour of The Season of Insanity.
Your objective is to make it through the holiday and into New Year's Day without having to make some resolution that's different than the Eating Lifestyle you have already been living this year.
If you have to "double down" on what you are already doing, then OK, you do that. But you've already had the experience of doing it, it's not something new. You are battle-hardened and ready for action, ready to hit the new year even harder than you ever did before, and you know you will not fail.
The bright morning of the End of the Season is coming. Jan 1, everyone in the world will be scrambling to un-do the damage.
For men, it'll be "getting back to the gym" and getting rid of that big 'ol Buddha belly. ARRR ARRR ARRR....
For you ladies in the northern hemisphere, bikinis will be showing up in stores, when: February or maybe March? Just in time to smack you upside the face, right?
Don't fuck up now, you've come too far. Don't generate a "belly" to get rid of. Don't buy yourself swimsuit shame in February. Don't set yourself up to lose hope and give in to the 2.5lb heart-shaped box of fine chocolates.
In January and February, WE won't be "undoing damage". We will simply be continuing the lifestyle we have already been living.