Our family has been trying out a new January plan on treats. The rules aren't perfectly clear, but mostly they go like this:
1. Don't buy any treats or junk food at the store. (Any treats we eat, we have to make)
2. Dessert only on our two dessert nights (Monday and Friday or Saturday)
3. No treat rewards
4. And kind of along with rule #1 - no candy/chocolate/etc that we already had/have (think a house full of leftover Christmas goodies)
I really love treats. In college when my roommates and I would write up our HEP (Healthy Eating Plan) goals, sometimes I would be super ambitious and add to my plan "1 treat a day". And this was a serious business, major will-power required goal. Since college I haven't made many HEP goals for myself and I wouldn't have even considered a treat-limiting goal without the motivation/peer-pressure of my super diligent/marathoning roommates to help me along. Mostly I've found a happy balance of eating lots of good healthy foods and then not going crazy about junk food and enjoying treats whenever I feel like it :) (Which, admittedly has been usually too much, but not
too too much...)
But, thanks to a crazy sickness that wiped me out from Christmas through the beginning of the new year, here we are on January 11th with a house full of delicious goodies and treats and I've been going days (days!) at a time without treats.
The sickness came at just the right time so that when Jordan offered his new year's treat plan, I was actually able to consider it (a week or so without treats/food definitely helped me kick my constant sugar cravings). And then after another week or so we're still going strong and I'm making better choices and we've even had chocolate chip cookies on the counter (leftover from our Friday dessert night) and homemade ice cream in the freezer for three days and I haven't even gone crazy about not eating them. I can hardly believe it.
The best things so far:
1. Super fun homemade treats. Strawberry shortcake with homemade cake and homemade ice cream -yum!
2. Wow! I'm doing this hard thing I never would have even considered I could possibly do!
3. Knowing I'm doing such a good thing for myself. My goal this year is to be healthy and this has been a great start to making better choices for myself to help me feel better and stronger.
Hooray for a new plan, we'll see how we do. And we'll see what happens when February comes and all the delicious treats hidden away for now are allowed again. :)