Weekly Treat

Boudreaux and I were talking at lunch yesterday, and I was saying that I really think that one of the things that keeps us from buying junk food and unhealthy things is knowing that Saturday comes every week because Saturday is treat day! And yes, I prefer "treat" day to "cheat" day for the reasons that Dallas and Melissa Hartwig point out. "Cheat" implies that you're doing something wrong, that you're breaking a rule, that there's something about which to potentially feel guilty, and food should never make you feel guilty. The "treat" on the other hand isn't a reward, but it's something special, something out of the ordinary to enjoy. While I try not to "look forward" per se to my "treat days," it does help knowing that if I'm having a bad week when I would normally dive into a box of cookies (GF or otherwise) or drown myself in a pint of ice cream, I do get a day where I can eat what I want, and it doesn't become about emotional eating. And for me, that's a huge deal. And I suspect for most people, emotional eating is a giant battle to overcome.

If I know that on Saturday we can go out to lunch or dinner and I can get some chips and salsa, then that's all I need to keep me from buying them at the grocery and mindlessly eating them all week. Let me point out, too, that on "treat day" we don't go whole hog crazy here either. If we have a food and veg fest, it's Paleo stuff that I cook at home, so it's meatzza and fajitas and salads and paleo ice cream or paleo cobbler. Because I notice pretty soon after I eat how I feel, even when we eat out, I don't go nuts. Yesterday, I wanted chips and salsa. And you know what? Applebees, of all places, has really good chips and salsa. They must have upped their game or something or we just happened to have lucked out with a good chef or manager here in our little town, because they have surprisingly good meals. But I digress. My point is, I got a nice and actually quite beautiful salad for lunch with my chips and salsa. It still surprises me that that's the thing that I want.

Last week after lunch on the way home from the G'parents I was starving, so we stopped at Burger King because they have sweet potato fries, which were actually quite good, btw. I think they are "breaded" in some kind of cornmeal, so you know, not really Paleo, but of all the things I could have possibly eaten, well, anyway, they were good. But I decided last week that yesterday I would have what I hoped would be glorious, the Bacon Sundae. Oh sweet jeebus. Vanilla ice cream topped with bacon, chocolate, and caramel. Wow. I bought two for myself. I recommend this whole heartedly. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing people.

Was it worth how I felt after? Hell yes, because I did it twice. I bought two, remember? I have grown so accustomed to Boudreaux's Paleo ice cream concoction that I don't crave ice cream anymore (if you knew me pre-Paleo IRL, then you know that I'm like Forrest Gump when it comes to ice cream, especially mint chocolate chip. I must have ice cream!). Boudreaux's Paleo ice cream is not made with sugar. At all. We put honey on top. That's as sweet as it gets. But my big treats that I've chosen this month have been of the super sweet variety--wedding cake and the bacon sundae. I'm just glad that I had some ginger ale still squirreled away for my belly ache after eating half of the first sundae. I left the half and had the other whole one after the healthy dinner I made, so it didn't tax me as badly as the first one.

The thing is though, that even though my "big treats" have been super sweet, since I don't crave sugar anymore (outside of fruit, but even that's gone down dramatically--I don't "crave" cobbler after dinner anymore or the ice cream really), these things hit me really really hard. I think this is good, actually, even though I do feel like crap afterwards, because it means that my body understands that this stuff is extraordinarily sweet and has the appropriate response. And that's a good thing. And it's like mental muscle memory, too. Like on that very off moment when I think I want chocolate, my brain kicks in with "remember how sugar makes you feel? Do you want to feel that bad during your workout tomorrow? Is it worth it?" And that's enough. And again, I think that's good.

But the combination of chocolate, caramel, and bacon--oooh, the sweet to the salty ratio was almost perfect. Of course, I wished there were more bacon in it. It needed bacon crumbles blended into it like a blizzard to be perfect really. But, oh wow. It seriously was a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I feel surprisingly okay this morning. I thought for sure with the wine and the sugar that I'd be a holy hot mess this morning, but I think because of the wine and the sugar taxing my poor body, I fell asleep on the couch before 8:30 last night. I think it was just too much. And then I was asleep pretty quickly once I went to bed and slept fairly solidly for 7.25 hours (eyes opened at 4:15, per S.O.P.), but I managed to drift off again for another 2 hours, so I'm sure the sleep is what helped. Yay sleep!