Day 4 Handling the Holidays Series
What the heck is an exception meal? Since I like my clients to remove labels from food such as “good” “bad” “fattening” and especially “cheat,” we use “exception meal” as a way to designate a meal or dessert that is an exception to the way they normally eat. This is not a “cheat” on your diet. “Cheating” sounds bad and wrong in some way—which actually excites your brain a little bit. When you are eating something that you wouldn’t normally eat and you decide to eat it in the moment, rather than planning ahead, it is actually more exciting to your brain and you get a bigger dopamine hit than you would have from the sugar alone. It also reinforces your urges and strengthens the unconscious neural pathways that are part of why you feel like you are “eating against your will.”
When you plan to have dessert tomorrow, and then you eat the dessert, you can fully enjoy it—no guilt. I like to do this once per week. You can plan either an entire meal, such as ordering whatever you want from a restaurant, or just a dessert. Don’t make it a free for all day.
Plan exceptions to your regular eating protocol and then enjoy them guilt free! This keeps you from sneaking a little snack here and grabbing a bite of extra dessert there. You know you have that exception planned and you can look forward to it.
Tomorrow we’ll tackle a tip for holiday buffets!
Having trouble identifying what should be your regular way of eating? Let along an exception to it? Book a free strategy session with me and I’ll help you figure it out!
