Shabbos, it happens every week. When dieting, most people I know chose to ignore the day. I have been one of those people most of my life. Shabbos was always, a free for all, eat drink as much as you want. Limiting would detract from the Shabbos experience. I agreed with that for many years. But when I began to be more serious about weight loss, I knew I had to start adjusting my behaviors.
However, I didn’t want to DIET on Shabbos. Shabbos in its most basic sense is a day of rest. But its more than that it is a day we elevate beyond the physical realm and attain a surreal sense of peace, contentment and joy. And I don’t know of any more meaningful medium for experiencing that except food.
There has to be more, because if over eating makes me unhealthy than it cant make me truly happy, peaceful or content. So I started thinking to myself how can I limit out limiting.
I went back to my primary principles of dieting which are positive. If I eat all the food I need to eat I won’t have room for bad things.
Here are the strategies I starting employing that really helped:
- Add more veggies as a fillers to meals: Unlike week day meals Shabbos meals are different in that they have choices. I often have two or more choices or proteins, and carbs. By adding more veggie options I have more of an opportunity to fill up on vegges.
- Start with a clear broth soup: fills you up and just plain delicious.
- Eat whole grains: As much as this hurts sometimes I have cut back on my potato intake and looks toward, buckwheat, brown rice and other options that are simply healthier.
- Take a walk: I have tried to get out more on Shabbos, sitting around is not healthy for me or my kids
- Make only one dessert: if I only have one I am more conscience of how far it goes over the weekend
- Cut the excess: Most meals start with what my husband and I call the never ending salad course. We get straight to the point and eat the food we want (usually the chicken), instead of sitting around eating mindlessly.
- Watch how many portions: I don’t pull out a measuring cup like the rest of the week, but I watch how many times I fill my plate.
I don’t think people should get obsessed with dieting to never have a day off. But I think more people are not having that problem, rather they like myself take too many days off. I have been trying to refocus my Shabbos, and remember that it is a spiritual event and maybe edge away from all of the physical manifestations. So that I may enjoy 120 years of Shabbosim.
I guess it depends on how healthy the salads are, no?
well usually there is hummus, something fired, then something with mayo. all of which are not healthy. I take any actual “salad” and just put it with the main course and not tempted to fill up on bread and spreads.
If you don’t think about it as dieting, but as making a change in the way you eat, then it isn’t so bad. We do not have weight problems at our house, but are committed to healthy eating. We have fruit for dessert on Shabbat (never cake), make only whole grain carbs and have lots of cooked vegetables. I eat as much as I want on shabbat and don’t feel deprived. We also make healthy muffins for shabbat breakfast. Also, we also start with the main course. I
The only way I could every get through the week and stay (mostly) faithful to my diet is knowing that on Shabbat I could eat anything I wanted. I was less likely to binge on ice cream on a late Monday night knowing I could have some on Friday night. And come Shabbat, I didn’t have an all out binge, because I could eat “legally” and was less likely to go crazy. And because I had been so good during the week, I didn’t really want to mess up on Shabbat, so ate more healthily in any case.
Shabbat is not a problem at home its when we go out to friends. It is so bad having a table full of foods, candy,cake and challah that we don’t put on the table because we are not that strong. Shabbat is only one day Pasch is sometime nine or ten days. I held out for about 3 days then just lost it. Help!!!!!