10 Ways to Spoil Yourself...and Still Get to GOAL!

With Memorial Day weekend here, I thought I'd share one of my 'secrets' to getting to goal....and it's very simple! It's called SPOILING MYSELF!  LOL!

Seriously, it's all in how you look at it....and approach it.
Someone remarked on my binge thread about loving to eat....and I agree wholeheartedly!  I love to eat, too! But how do you reconcile that LOVE of just chewing, swallowing, the whole process, and LIKING what you eat, with staying OP?

How can you live on 1000 calories or less and LOVE it?

Well, I found ways....and I believe these were KEY for me to reaching goal. And I wish I could bottle that feeling of 'spoiling myself OP' and give it to each and every one of you, because if I could we'd all be at goal and be happy, right? 

But I can't, because what turns ME on isn't what necessarily turns YOU on. Everyone is different. So you have to find your OWN 'keys' to making the program 'yours', and staying happy even OP.

SPOILING myself....(or feeling like it, anyway) is important on this plan.

So how do I spoil myself?  Lots of ways and some of these are going to sound silly to you, but again, to each his own, right? Everyone has different tastes and you have to find the things that work for YOU.  But here's what worked for me:

1). SITTING DOWN and eating versus eating standing up is very important to me. When I'm sitting down, I'm 'acknowledging' that I'm eating....and I can't delude myself into thinking it 'doesn't count' because I ate it standing over the sink, or 'forget' to log it because oops, it was just a few leftovers as I was cleaning the kitchen last night, right? That can't count.  (unfortunately our body isn't fooled by this logic LOL....a calorie is a calorie, whether you eat it standing up or sitting down or sitting crosslegged or driving or standing on your head!)

Sitting down also helps to SLOW it down, which is important, too. We’ve all read how it takes the brain 20 minutes to acknowledge that the stomach is full. Well, that’s true! But it’s not going to work if you eat your meal in 5 seconds flat (and believe me, I can do it! LOL). 

So try not to ‘inhale’ your food….try to really appreciate it and get into it. And please don’t do 6 billion other things while you’re eating! I know we're all busy people, but you deserve to take the time to eat, for pete's sake. While you’re eating, you’re JUST eating. That’s all. 

I realize that can be hard to do, but I’ve been doing it for two years, so it IS possible. (with the exception of driving to the gym eating a bar….I mean, sometimes it IS unavoidable to be doing something else). But wherever you can, make it feel 'special'. YAY, it's mealtime! Try to CONCENTRATE on the fact that you’re eating. Acknowledge it. Be thankful for the food. Appreciate it. Don’t rush through it.  This is YOUR time. RELAX. ENJOY!

2). MULTIPLE DRINKS...as krazy as this sounds...became part of my meal routine. I'll sit down with my MF meal PLUS a cup of herb tea PLUS a glass of water PLUS a glass of strawberry kiwi sparkling water. PLUS maybe a glass of Crystal light! With all of those options to DRINK (and no calories in them) it's easy to fill up my stomach. They are all 'front and center' in my field of vision, so I look up, see them, and take a sip! Simple as that! Getting my 64 ozs. of water in a day then becomes easy-peasy.

3). FAVORITE MF MEALS - SO important! Who says you have to suffer through the beef stew if you hate it? Don't order it again! Who says you can't have a brownie for Breakfast? If that turns you on, GO for it!  I found, my favorite MF meals are ones I turn to over and over again so I don't fight it, I don't argue, I just go with my favs. PERIOD. I'll try the new meals when they come out (and who knows? They might become additional new favs!) but by and large I'm a creature of habit. If it works, don't mess with it!  The meals are all interchangeable so who cares?

In line with that I've got certain recipes I do with some of the MF meals:

- Oatmeal: I always always make it into 'cookies'. Easy...mix the dry mix with a tad (like 1/4 tsp) baking soda, a sprinkle of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon Splenda. Then add a dash of vanilla extract, 1/3 cup cold water, mix well again. Allow to sit 5 minutes on counter to thicken. Pour onto a PAM-sprayed cookie sheet into cookie shapes (I use a spoon and just sort of ladle it...the batter will still be fairly thin) and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Makes about 7, 3" diameter cookies. EAT WARM (they are awful cold). I spread a bit of laughing cow reg. cream cheese or strawberry cream cheese (1/3 less fat kind) -- 1 TBL...we're talking no more than an extra 35 calories here...divided between all the warm cookies and fold them over like little cannolis, and I feel like a queen!
- Hot Cocoa: I always make a MF peanut butter cup....into a small PAM-sprayed  custard dish, dump the dry MF hot cocoa mix and mix with 3 TBL cold water. Add 1 TBL dry PB2 powder Mix again. In a separate small bowl mix 1 additional TBL PB2 with 1/2 TBL cold water to make 'peanut butter'. Make a well in the center of the cocoa mixture with your finger, and put the 'peanut butter' mixture inside. Cover it over with the cocoa mixture 'batter' and wrap the entire thing with saran wrap and FREEZE for at least 2 hours. Take out about 15-20 minutes before eating to defrost a bit before eating.
- Shake cake: Mix 1 dry shake mix with 3 TBL eggbeaters, pour into a PAM-sprayed MF brownie container or small bowl, and microwave on high for exactly 1 minute. The mixture will puff up....careful, it may overflow in the microwave, watch it...take out, remove from bowl or container and cut up into small pieces. Dip in WF chocolate sauce...it's a dense chocolate 'cake' with chocolate syrup! But again, eat warm....cold it gets hard as a rock.
- Cheesecake: In a PAM-sprayed NINJA blender, pour a scant 1 TBL SF raspberry syrup (I use Torani) into the bottom so it barely covers the bottom. Add 1 MF vanilla pudding, 1-2 TBLS LF cream cheese...do NOT add water.  It will be a very thick mixture and you'll have to scrape it once, then blend again...but the result is a small amount (like a custard cup sized) of raspberry cheesecake that tastes AWESOME.

I love the cereals, the smoothies, the soft serve (I’ve already shared my soft serve recipe, it’s in the Recipes forum) which I plump up to make a huge bowlful, and of course the brownies….and the bars and pretzels are my go-to MF meals in the mornings when I’m out on my way to/from the gym or running errands.  So yes, most of my meals (with the exception of the Flavors of Home…OMG the turkey marina is AWESOME…and the mashed potatoes, love both flavors) are ‘sweet’ meals. I don’t worry about it. I can still lose weight eating them so who cares?

4). FOOD SUBSTITUTES. Going to a barbeque? You can have TWO (2) Boca (regular) burgers! How cool is that? Just bring them with you and ask whoever’s manning the grill to pop them on for you (and warn them, they don’t take long to cook at all!) Just skip the bun, that’s all. Add a hunk of lettuce, maybe a slice of fresh tomato. Hey, pickles are a snack! You can have a pickle, too. Salad? SURE! Just use your MF approved salad dressing.

I have FILLED MY PLATE with food….and still stayed OP! To the point where relatives go “Wow, you get to eat a lot!” (but guess what? It’s mostly veggies LOL)

Who cares, right? The deal is, you have a nice full plate and can enjoy yourself at the backyard barbeque without feeling deprived. Don’t even LOOK at the mayo-laden salads. Who needs all that FAT, right? Grab yourself a diet Coke AND maybe a Propel fitness water. Have a ball! Look at you, eating healthy and LOVING IT!

Dessert? Bring your own pre-made brownie….or muffin...or pudding…or a bar. Or a bag of MF pretzels or cheese pizza bites. Whatever. Just make sure it’s a MF meal and you’re golden! 

5).  ATTITUDE is so important!  Look at it this way. You have two choices…you can tell yourself ‘Poor little ole me’ (the PLOMs) I can’t eat ‘X’…..or you can tell yourself ‘Wow, isn’t this great I get to EAT, again!’  Eating 6x a day is FUN, isn’t it?  I think so….so hang onto that! Who cares that you’re only eating a little bit? You’re eating. STOP looking upon it as a deprivation and START looking at it as EMPOWERING yourself, TAKING CARE of yourself, TREATING yourself right!

6).  DOING OTHER THINGS that make me happy….asserting myself in my life so that ‘my time’ is reserved for ME. I don’t let other people run my life. I have my obligations, sure, and I fulfill them….but I also take care of ME. That’s important. If you don’t care of you, who’s gonna do it, right? So make a list! What do you LOVE to do? For me it’s lots of things:

Reading, Writing (duh!)…LOL, Commenting on blogs, Gardening, Exercising, Taking a bath, Sunbathing (weather provided), Playing with my cats, Watching a funny movie on TV (or a WWII movie, for some reason I really love these), Doing my Nails, Giving myself a Facial, Going Clothes shopping (for real or over the internet), Talking with a good friend (via email, live, or FB, distance doesn’t matter anymore), Playing the piano, Flower arranging, Making candles, Painting (walls, believe it or not, drives my DH KRAZY, I LOVE to change colors in a room), Playing PS3 games, Drawing…..lots of things!  And when I feel like eating…I’ll go do one of these things INSTEAD. It keeps me busy and takes my mind off my craving.

Don’t fixate on the craving…IGNORE it and move on to something else. 

7). TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT! A new exercise, for example…you might just find a new favorite! A new exercise class….Zumba is LOTS of fun…Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi, Aerobics (low impact), Spinning, Weight Circuit, TRX cables (OMG these are SO COOL I’m going to do a thread on these on the Exercise forum), there’s so many different things you can try!  Plus with a new class, you never know, you might meet a whole new group of people ‘just like you’ and make friends and commiserate while you’re doing crunches! LOL!  Seriously! I have made friends at my gym and I look forward to seeing them now. We encourage each other, we listen to each other’s trials and tribulations, we HELP each other. Love it! 

8). GIVE YOURSELF A PRESENT….a new necklace…a new top…maybe that pair of smaller jeans you tried on that FIT now! Why not? And while you’re at it, GET RID OF the fat clothes. You don’t need to give yourself backdoor. You’re moving FORWARD, not back.

9). TAKE A NAP! Hey, why NOT? Dr. A advocates a 5 minute ‘power nap’ to refresh your body and mind….I take a bit longer (but some of that is due to the fibromyalgia, I get exhausted most afternoons) but the principle is the same! Close the door, pull the shades, and just go to SLEEP for awhile. The world will still be here when you wake up, and you’ll be refreshed and ready to go. We all try to do TOO MUCH in this life. SLOW IT DOWN a bit….take time for YOU.

10). Above all, REMEMBER why you started this program. It was for YOU, remember? It was to lose the weight and regain your health and feel good about yourself again! So you can CONTINUE to do that, every day you’re OP.  Every meal you get through is a step in the right direction, an affirmation of your worth to yourself. Every time you avoid a craving and do something else ‘instead’, you are RETRAINING YOUR BRAIN to find a different path when those urges strike!

YOU CAN DO IT.  It takes time, it takes patience, and it takes a LOVE of self-love…but it can be done. 

Have a great Memorial Day....and Keep on keepin' on!