Treat Thinking

Treat thinking. I'm sure you know it, even if you're like so awesome that you don't participate in it (hey...that's me right now...except let's see if I can last till the end of this post) or it doesn't seem to cause a problem for you. Here's a common scenario: I just ran 3,7, 22, or whatever miles; I deserve a treat.

There's two ways of thinking about that. Here's some healthy attitude bullshit that can be hard to sustain in the course of putting up with life's additional bullshit: "Running and the health benefits I receive from it are treats all by theyselves! I don't need to have a chocolate covered chocolate cake."

Another way to think of it is that you do, in fact, deserve a treat. I'm mean, hell yes, you deserve a treat. People are out there having treats without even having gotten off their couch. You burned like 80zillion calories, so you can have a treat. You ran. Despite what you might hear at a Weight Watchers (fuck off) meeting, I think this is okay enough thinking if you are actually willing to do the math. If you really did burn, say 2000 calories, you actually are going to need to take in some additional calories to sustain a healthy consistent metabolism that continues to both burn and fuel your workouts. If you want to position some of these calories as a treat or post-workout reward, I think that's fine as long as it's one of MANY reasons why you did that workout. If every workout is just a path to enchildas, that's probably going to break down at some point. Not that I know from experience or anything.

The real catch is that you actually have to do the actual math and then actually stick to it. Everybody who knows Miss Lady knows Miss Lady is math adverse. I find a million ways to not do it, including..umm eating whole foods exclusively so that I don't have to worry so much about calorie math-- I never do it, except as a part of occasionally troubleshooting my trouble with weight loss. A perfect example of when I effed this up was when I gained fat while marathon training. Bourbon and queso and math adversion plus a failure to be reasonable (another option actually) meant that I gained 5 bad pounds-- not muscle-- during the holidays. While running up to 40 miles per week. Though I also know that distance training is not the ideal way for me to lose weight, I also know that is some BROKEN ASS treat thinking. For another example of BROKEN ASS treating thinking, see Weight Watchers-- "I was so good today and I still have 8 pts left because I ate from the 4pts boxes all day and now I can have cake so I can live another day!"

So treat thinking is a real danger right now. Because I so could. Accomplishing pretty much anything with a broken leg is a pretty good workout. There also might be some temptation to feel, somewhat justifiably, sorry for yourself. And then just have a treat. Here's an example that may or may not have driven me to the computer to write this: Cat litter. You can't change it on one foot. But you also can't let it just stink, because its Tuesday and you smelled it on Saturday and the cat has left a warning poo outside the litter. Some images: a pee and clay slush, Miss Lady balancing on one foot cursing herself for not be adamant that liners should be purchased, Miss Lady tossing the whole slushy pan into a bag after trying to unstick what was stuck, Miss Lady cursing everyone who was here and didn't change this litter-- dammit-- even though they were helpful in a thousand other ways, Miss Lady learning to mop on one foot, and then having to wash that one foot for reasons I dont want to talk about. Also, Miss Lady trying to explain to the friend who will buy her a new box that regular size is oddly labeled "jumbo" and then hating the whole cat litter industry. HATE.

I could really use a treat right now, but I don't want to get into that type of thinking. If I do though, fortunately the only thing in the house like that is Larabars, which ain't so bad. AND its lunch time now, so I can just go have the food I need to eat anyhow.

Wait...and there's cold brew coffee. Always a totally healthy and excusable treat. Problem solved.