Eating one bad thing a week.

JoeyK said:

I always seem to stick to a diet better when I allow myself 1 indulgent on the weekend. This weekend might be popcorn at the movies....I just worry it will affect my blood sugar a lot... I've already gotten my blood sugar under control and lost 8 lbs in a week according to my scale. Anyone else have one indulgent? I won't be doing any sweets though....that's off limits.

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Having got my act together, via-a-vis my diabetes, I now find I can eat more naughtier things than I could at diagnosis, so that's worth bearing in mind. That said, the only full sugar fizzy drink I have had was in error, and I could taste it as different, and I have not had one piece of cake, or sweets since diagnosis in October 2013. I don't feel the need.

Can I ask you why, if you are making progress you would want to walk 100 yards forwards, only to turn 10 yards back, just to have to reclaim the yards as soon as you turn again?

Now, of course, that may not be a good example, and the metrics of yards and proportions could be very wrong, but that's how I look upon it. I don't bother to have celebratory food or treats when I have had my lab bloods done or the like.

I have had the odd crisp, and I have had the very odd piece of bread, but within my daily "usual" carb control.

Different people deal with things in different ways, and I've chosen my way. You have to decide for yourself what your way is.

If you can keep it to once a week I think it's a very good idea indeed. But then I allow myself to eat stuff I don't normally eat one day per week, on Sundays, so I know where you are coming from. If it helps you to stay on the narrow path during the rest of the week a planned indulgence now and then may be exactly what you need.

Maybe I should say that I don't stuff myself with cake on Sundays. I may have hash for breakfast, or a piece of toast, rarely anything worse but if I really really want a Danish pastry I will go ahead and have one, happens a couple of times per year.

Well as long as you realise your talking about 400 calories and about 60g of carbs and that's a small portion at the cinema and you know just how much that's going to set you back in terms of your diet then if you think it's worth it then it's your choice.Go for it.

britishpub said:

If I was to do it, I'd certainly choose something nicer/better than Popcorn.

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what would yours be ? or would you completely abstain ?
i would choose a piece of french baguette slathered in butter

Well if you are sure then as I said go for it, it is after all your decision you do not need permission from any one here.
All I know is if I started eating popcorn I could't stop till it was all gone then I would be looking for more.

JohnEGreen said:

Well if you are sure then as I said go for it, it is after all your decision you do not need permission from any one here.
All I know is if I started eating popcorn I could't stop till it was all gone then I would be looking for more.

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You'd miss the film then.

SunnyExpat said:

You'd miss the film then.

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You've just got to decide what's more important the film or the popcorn for me it would be the popcorn every time.

JoeyK said:

How can 1 thing of popcorn set me back that much on my diet? I don't think it's going to put back on the 8 lbs I lost in a week.

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It might not set you back at all. It might send you into a carb-fest you find hard to break.

Some people find carbs addictive. Some find them very addictive and some not at all. I can have no idea where you might lie ion the spectrum. However, I would ask you, at this stage to ask yourself what you are trying to achieve, and what your number one objective is.

For me, there was only ever one objective and it didn't involve weight loss. It does concern me that the weight loss aspect of the early days of diagnosis is so heavily focused upon, but maybe I'm a strange one.

I think it all depends what sort of diet you are on.

If you are just focusing on calories, then it is just number crunching.

If you are dropping carbs from your diet, then a big dose of them will replenish your glycogen stores, causing fluid retention, thirst and apparent weight regain - I can put on 4-5 lbs over night doing this. Then it takes 3 days of strict low carbing to widdle it all away again - that is half a week lost on weight fluctuations, and not knowing if the weight you are 'losing' is fat-weight or water-weight.

If you are very low carbing, you would likely lose being in ketosis with such a meal. Provided you are fat-adapted, you can slide back into ketosis quite quickly, but you are still bouncing your body around and asking it to switch back and forth between glucose-burning and fat-burning, which seems an unnecessary ask.

If you are fully fat adapted, and your insulin production has naturally downgraded, then dumping huge amounts of carbs into the bloodstream will temporarily send your blood glucose sky high. This happens whether you are diabetic or not, since reduced insulin production happens to everyone on a LC diet. Ever had a food hangover? They are not fun. Takes at least 3 days, sometimes a couple of weeks, to readjust back up to full insulin production. During that period, carbs send blood glucose levels higher than normal, causing more damage than normal. It is advised to re-feed carbs after a low carb diet slowly, over time, in increments, to avoid just this damage.

If you are prone to carb cravings, they will kick in, urging you to eat more carbs, and effectively sabotage your diet. If you find carbs addictive, then that makes the cravings worse.

If you are prone to reactive hypoglycaemia (a lot of us are, although few of us have it badly), then the carb cravings will hit badly, and you may experience hypos after the carbs too.

All of the above are reasons why I think that 'treats' and 'controlled breaks' from diets are really just self sabotage. But then, I get carb cravings, reactive hypoglycaemia, don't lose weight easily, and have seen more people fall off diets than I have had hot dinners. Some of those diets have been my own. So I may be biased, or I may be world weary, or I may be a prophet. Your mileage may vary.