Lose weight the fun way.

I reckon I've managed to isolate one major contributor to my failure. Sugar. Yes, that is the culprit. I've managed to isolate it via various willpower challenges and honest observation of my thoughts and actions when I have sugar.

I generally do pretty well, I never consume any type of non alcoholic drink that contains calories so sugar there is out. I don't add sugar to anything or keep granulated sugar at home. I don't eat sugary cereals. I don't use artificial sweeteners. The culprit is having something like a cookie or candy bar or cupcake that sets me off. It literally sets me off! It's like I'm ok without it, I won't even crave it but I'll just have it anyway because that's what we do, that's how we reward ourselves for doing well, we have a cheat. But is it good to even have that cheat? If it completely sets off the body's response to what that sugar means and now it remembers it again and wants more? Isn't it easier to just not set that off in the first place?

I am really questioning the following: are cheats good when once you have one cheat that is when it is the hardest to control cravings, and do we really want/need those cheats, is it our bodies or is it our minds that are hyping it up??

Nathan A.

02/18/2015 7:52PM

Perhaps rather than a cheat, you should just schedule yourself some 'junk' or 'crave' food. I know - thats what a cheat is. But maybe rather than calling it a 'cheat' which has a negative connotation, like you are being bad...maybe you look at it as part of your lifestyle, a choice you make.I realize though, thats not your point. Your point is, once you open the door, things come flooding out perhaps more than you expect, and you need even more...and it repeats. Anyways, my initial point is that maybe the idea of the 'cheat' is kind of making you crave it even more. Perhaps if you view it as just part of your meal, part of your rhythm, it wouldn't feel so unnatural. Another idea might be to counteract the cheat with a corresponding beast-mode exercise kind of event. Say, burn an extra 200 calories the day of, or the day before the cheat. You wrote about increasing the incline on the treadmill the other day...maybe you set the incline 1 or 2 levels up on cheat day? :)

Ruby541

I think my quandary is do I justify safe cheats I can manage (not sure yet what that would consist of) or do I justify not cheating for the most part? I just don't have the answer. I'm so tired of food unraveling all my hard work!

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