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Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The Ticket Theory

Those of you who enjoy moderation, y'all just sit this one out, mkay?

Let me preface this by saying that I'm a huge researcher, and I've read all the Whole30 posts on life after your 30 multiple times.

Here's the thing: decision fatigue is real, and that's why the rules work for me--I don't have to ask myself if something is worth it. It's super cute that Melissa Hartwig can eat two bites of a donut and then stop because it's no longer worth it, but if I don't cover that donut in coffee grounds, I WILL RETURN. No matter how crappy it was. Making a decision at every bite is a quick way for me to lose my mind. Even with a Whole100 under my belt, it's still a problem. Telling myself that I'm free to make worth-it decisions on the fly is a sure fire way to chaos. Returning to the Whole30 is a helpful strategy, but it makes me likely to EAT ALL THE THINGS before I start.



On the other hand, I'm not a robot who can swear off less-healthy food forever. So, recently I've been thinking about giving myself a certain number of tickets a year for one meal of craziness. And that's it. No Thanksgiving dinner that leads into my birthday weekend five days of craziness, but two separate tickets that I consciously spend and make sure that the meal I get will be worth it. Predetermined "worth it" moments, if you will. Enough to cover single holiday meals and a few spare for random events that come up (but not so many that I wouldn't have to be discriminating).

Thoughts? I'd love to hear from fellow abstainer types who've mastered healthy eating for the long term.

6 comments:

  1. Man I was hoping peeps had commented. I could have written this exact thing myself. For certain foods, it's absolutely no brakes race to the bottom. I can't figure out how to live my life full time outside of the Whole 30. For instance, my husband and I make pizzas on the grill, and it's our thing. We have a little wine, we make pizzas, we enjoy the pizzas. What do I do about that? :/

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    1. I just copied this post over here so that I could refer to it in my other post :-) if you go to our Instagram page, there are lots of helpful comments on this overy there. It's the one with Charlie holding the Willy Wonka ticket.

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  2. Sarah, ❤️. You are wonderful.

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  3. This is what Sugar free Sheila does!

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  4. I was just catching up on your guys Instagram and I absolutely LOVE this idea! I am the exact same way. I'm about to go into crazy research mode thanks to this haha so thank you ;)

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