Planned Exceptions

No matter how committed you are to your new eating plan, exceptions (eating “off pro gram”) will happen—that’s just reality. But these exceptions do not have to stall or under mine your weight loss goals if you can avoid two typical pitfalls: 1) rigidly expecting perfection in your eating and then “punishing” yourself for what you deem an “eating mistake,” thus triggering a downward spiral, and/or 2) rationalizing all eating exceptions and making them too often.

To avoid these pitfalls, you have to, in essence, learn how to “do eating exceptions well.” Think about learning to ice skate—the first thing taught is how to fall the right way. This is done because people learning to ice skate fall repeatedly, and they need to learn to do it without hurting themselves. Similarly, you must prepare for inevitable eating “falls” and learn to do them without hurting your long-term goal of sustained weight loss. To do this, we suggest a twofold approach:

1. Use “planned exceptions” to your advantage, whereby you consciously make choices ahead of time to make an occasional eating exception, thus controlling the size and frequency of eating exceptions.
2. Develop strategies for how to respond to in-the-moment, unplanned eating exceptions so you can bounce right back onto program eating.

This exercise is designed to help you take advantage of “planned exceptions.”

Given that it’s impractical to execute your eating plan perfectly all the time, it’s best to mindfully plan a modest eating exception in a given month, but in a way that won’t sabotage your goals. This might include planned exceptions like having an extra glass of wine on Saturday night or having a piece of cake at your child’s birthday celebration. List an eating exception that you plan to make this month in light of any special events or rituals you have, and make a game plan around it.

For each planned eating exception you make, record answers to the following prompts:

• What did you eat/drink? Compared with behaviors in the past, were you able to limit impact of this exception through greater moderation?
• On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = didn’t enjoy it at all, 5 = enjoyed it immensely), how much did you enjoy it?
• Did this eating exception cause you to make additional unplanned eating exceptions, or were you able to get right back on track?
• Is this an exception worth making in the future? Why or why not? Can you prioritize which exception(s) you make and which ones would be best to eliminate.

At your next appointment, be prepared to share your answers to Part 2 and to discuss these questions with your health coach/clinician:

1. Are you happy with the pace of your weight loss in light of your planned exception(s)?
2. Do you want to make any adjustments for the coming month? What’s your plan?