Cheat vs Treat

    If you're like a lot of us, you're still waging war against the pandemic pounds. The holidays certainly didn't help either. The fifteen pounds I'd managed to drop this summer was quickly reduced to ten and it feels like I'm back at square one again. Weight loss can feel like a never ending battle and being fifty-plus seems to make it all the more difficult.

    One trick a lot of programs offer is a 'cheat day' or 'cheat meal' but that can lead to a very slippery slope. You may KNOW you're not supposed to indulge in sugary treats or fatty fried fast foods but, really, the word "cheat" implies that maybe those no-no's are allowed at least in small quantities from time to time. Hence, cheat! It doesn't feel like cheating if it isn't otherwise 'bad', right?

    So, it occurred to me that maybe we need to refer to these indulgence days as Treat Days instead. 'Treat' has a more positive connotation and you may not be so inclined to doing something you could end up feeling guilty for later, as in 'cheating' which already implies you're doing something wrong! But a Treat is a reward for sticking to the program, for making those little baby steps, and with that positive frame of mind you will be much more likely to choose a more positive, healthier way to indulge.

    For my new Treat Days this year, I plan to choose a healthy meal option on the weekends. My daily meals are pretty much all the same, day in and day out, and that gets, well, boring, after a while. Salads all end up tasting the same, yogurt all tastes like yogurt-I don't care what flavor it is. So, on the weekends, I will be planning a more experimental meal plan, trying different recipes--healthy, of course, but just something to jooje it up, add a little spice to the mix. I'm pre-diabetic now and I've tried ignoring the advice to avoid sugar--give up ice cream? Christmas cookies? Hot cocoa? But when it started to have a physical effect on how I would feel after, well, I'm more willing to sit up and pay attention. Life is short and I want to live the best of what I've got left for as long as possible. 

    Who's with me?



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