Giving Yourself Permission To Cheat On A Diet

Bewitched! Getting into the Halloween spirit with a little face painting fun.

Bewitched! I didn’t worry too much about lunch and instead got into the Halloween spirit with a little face painting fun.

I knew today would be a challenge. We planned to spend a chunk of the day with friends picking pumpkins. It’s days like today, I need to control the cheating.

Yep, that’s right. I decided to have fun and cheat on my diet.

Cheating is a pretty strong word. Actually, I gave myself permission to either splurge a little at lunch or have a dessert — depending on the food situation.

Once we arrived at the Maryland farm, my hubby spotted the homemade ice cream. I decided to pass. I didn’t even want a taste. At that moment I decided to skip dessert, not worry about lunch, and enjoy the day.

Fun On The Farm
Before heading out to the field to pick our Great Pumpkin, we spent some time at the petting zoo meeting baby cows, pigmy goats, piglets, sheep, llamas, horses and the farm’s very friendly herding dog, Molly.

The day wasn’t complete without a little face painting.

Before lunch we took a nice hour-long stroll in the corn maze. Actually we got lost. And most of the paths we took were uphill. My hubby is a new walker (not in the Walking Dead sense) and got a good workout. For me, the maze walk was fairly easy. Yes it was hilly, but that didn’t bother me one bit. Awesome!

We exited the maze at the pumpkin patch and found a lovely 15 pounder. In a few days I’ll carve my jack-o-lantern and make pumpkin seeds (great for salads!).

Controlling The Cheat
When lunchtime rolled around, I actually saw a very healthy-looking fresh veggie salad with grilled chicken. I toyed with that for a moment or two. It would keep me on track for the day. But remembering I gave myself permission to cheat today, and I skipped the ice cream, I let my eyes wander the menu a bit. Then I found it — the grilled chicken BLT on whole wheat sourdough. Yum.

My husband ate my side of fries…OK, I ate 2 fries (and 1/4 of his cheese grits). To make sure I didn’t go after more fries, I drank a load of unsweetened ice tea which helped to fill me up.

Am I worried about cheating on my diet? Not really. I eat 35 healthy meals a week (5 small meals/day). If one of those meals is unhealthy once in a blue moon it won’t hurt me. Besides, I’m not really on a diet. I’m changing my lifestyle as far as the types of foods I eat. Thanks to my new lifestyle I’m loosing weight. But my new lifestyle doesn’t mean I deprive myself and risk binge eating.

I have no desire to go back to how I use to eat before. But on days when I’m out with friends, I can’t always control where we eat. But I can control what I eat and how much. The key is being in control and not letting the food control you.

Anyway, I’m back on track and looking forward to tonight’s dinner — roasted turkey breast, grilled squash and a small mixed green salad.

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