Splurge Meals/Days

[megalicious]

I'm curious what you all think of having a set splurge meal or day. My friend's hubby is a nutritionist and swears by it. I guess the idea is that you save all the unhealthy things you want for a giant act of gluttony once per week and eat really well the rest of the week. Do/have any of you done this? Did it help keep you on track the rest of the week? How did you deal with things like work parties, etc. that mess with your plans?

[kams]

For me, a single splurge meal just doesn't work. It sets in motion a string of terrible eating. It also makes me feel deprived for the rest of the week.

I do the best when I simply eat sensibly. If I want Starbucks on a Tuesday, I'll get a tall & be sure to follow it with more water. If I want to make spaghetti on Thursday, I make it and eat a reasonable portion and load up on salad. When I'm conscious but not terribly restrictive, I seem to enjoy making better decision.

I'm not saying it can't or won't work for you by any means. I just find that it doesn't work for me personally.

[taratru]

I just eat what I want when I want it and make adjustments the rest of the day. Or if I know it's going to be a rough couple of days food-wise (traveling or visiting family), I make sure to run longer or extend my workouts.

[blinkinglight1]

We allow 1-2 cheat meals per week. However I'm starting to consider ditching the cheat meals because 1) the longer I don't eat junk the less I want it and 2) if I eat sugar it starts my sugar cravings back up again and I have to deal with it the next several days. It's just almost not worth it.

[statlerwaldorf]

Splurge meals or days were never good for me. I try to pick and choose. If I want a burger, I get a healthier side than fries and make it work with my daily calorie goal.

[mrsmc08]

I am an emotional eater (kind of- can go both ways eat a lot or dont eat). Some days I am super hard on what I eat, at the same time I know life is short and if you can't enjoy things- whats the point. So I tend to do a bit of both. It might take me longer to lose the weight- but if I die tomorrow- then I'll never lose the weight and I deprived myself of something yummy.

[jdbyogi]

I totally agree with eating poorly in large amounts sets in motion a pattern of poor eating for me. I started occasionally having a piece of candy in the afternoon, and now I want it every.single.day. When I have coffee every morning, I really begin to need it every morning. Same with soda. Occasionally having a treat or a less healthy meal, balanced within my day, works much better for me. I enjoy it when I have it, but stop needing it. Also, eating crap tends to taste good, but then make me feel like crap an hour later. I have poor self control, so getting a small amount of something delish work much better for me.

Though I do have a piece of dark chocolate almost every evening

[Wines Not Whines]

I do splurge meals, but they're still semi-reasonable. For example, last night we went out for Mexican food. I ordered fajitas and ate about half of my food, I didn't eat any chips, but I did have 2 margaritas. And after dinner DH wanted to get ice cream, and I shared some of his. So it's not like I totally pigged out, but I definitely splurged much more than usual and probably ate twice the calories of a normal dinner.