Eat your favourites

Do you have a favourite food — or a few of them — that challenge you on your journey? It could be that you eat it without planning, or have a hard time stopping once you start. You might decide that the best way to manage that food is to avoid it altogether. But quitting a favourite food all together often leaves us feeling frustrated, deprived, and craving it even more. That’s a recipe for overeating in the long run. Instead, as suggested in your Weekly, consider a more sustainable plan to eat what you love.

When we deprive ourselves of certain foods, research studies <> show that we are more likely to have cravings for them. No surprise there. Also, just by setting a rigid “can’t-eat-that” rule for ourselves, we avoid creating a more reasonable plan. Think of it this way: If you avoid your favourite treat for a month, are you more likely to eat just a little when you come in contact with it, or give in and overdo it?

Instead of setting unreasonable expectations for ourselves — and then feeling terrible when we fall short— a healthier approach is planning to eat those foods from time to time, in moderation. Your plan can reduce feelings of deprivation and help you create a balanced response to trigger foods, and to everything you eat.

To get started, deliberately plan ahead to eat a favourite food. Yes, go there! But follow these five steps, keeping in mind that the purpose is to set yourself up for less unplanned eating:

1. Choose a food you truly enjoy but try to avoid.

2. Decide when and where you’ll eat it. It’s best to choose a place and time where you won’t be very hungry.

3. Determine how much you want to eat.

4. Calculate the SmartPoints value.

5. Enjoy it with others, which can help make the experience even more fun — while perhaps quieting any self-criticism about having a favourite treat.

In addition to the five steps above, a few additional considerations can help ensure a delicious, no-guilt experience.

—First, ahead of time, consider how you’ll fit the food into your budget — will you use your Dailies and eat extra ZeroPoint foods, or lean on your Weeklies and rollovers?

—Next, limit your exposure by buying the food in a single serving rather than a larger package. For instance, if your high-risk food is chocolate chip cookies, consider going to your favourite bakery and ordering one or two.

—Finally, remember to eat slowly, pay attention to the flavours you love, and really savour each bite.