A Penny Day is a day when you “splurge” from your healthy eating lifestyle. It is best explained by using the pennies in a jar analogy.
The first jar has 365 pennies in it which represent the days of the year. Now, make a list of every day in the year that you might stray from your healthy eating lifestyle. Days like birthdays, weddings and holidays are some examples. For each day you list, take 1 penny from the first jar and put it in the second jar. Now look at jar 2. In the 2nd jar, you have 25 or so pennies. The remaining 340 or so pennies are still in your first jar and represent the days you will be living a healthy eating lifestyle. The 25 or so pennies in the 2nd jar represent the time each year you know you are going to splurge and stray from your healthy eating lifestyle. Using this example you can see that what you do on the 340 days of the year that you are following your healthy eating lifestyle closely is much more important that what happens on those 25 or so days that you splurged.
The problem though is it is not always easy to get back to our healthy eating lifestyle once we had a Penny Day.
Strategies for Success:
Give Yourself Permission--If the Penny Day is one meal or one day, plan to enjoy it. Agree with yourself that is it okay not to have a healthy eating day.
Frame Your Splurge--Keep your indulgences to one meal or one day. Make sure you keep your exercise program and eating structure healthy the day before and the day after your celebration. This is called "framing" your splurge.
Have a Plan--Plan the details of your splurge and the days before and after so you can stay on track.
The Splurge--Remember that your splurge isn't your last one ever. The goal here is to have a great time and enjoy your company. Focus on those foods that you love, eat slowly, and give yourself permission to savor them.
Take Pride in Your Recovery--Now it’s time to get back on track. If you overate, don't beat yourself up about it. Your overall success depends on how quickly you can recover from these special days. Remember the pennies in a jar analogy.
My near future goal is to figure out my penny days. What are yours?
~Amy
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