The Holy Mess Treat Box: How to Eat Treats During Weight Loss

The Holy Mess Treat Box is a specific strategy for how to eat treats during weight loss without overeating them.

Can you enjoy treat foods during weight loss? Is it possible to eat junk foods like chips, candy and chocolate – without being triggered to binge on them, overeat, or finish the whole bag?

YES, it’s absolutely possible to learn to enjoy these foods in moderation when you use the Treat Box strategy. Here’s a step-by-step guide to how.

What is a Treat Food?

At The Holy Mess and Faithful Finish Lines, a treat food is a food you are eat for enjoyment, not nourishment.

There’s flexibility with this definition. Some foods are nourishing and treats at the same time. A dinner of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans with bacon has lots of healthy food groups included, fusils your nutritional needs for that meal, AND is a treat.

There’s no need to get technical on this issue because you are an adult. No one is policing your food choices. You can eat multiple treats per day (or not), and you get to decide what you personally define as a treat.

Why You Need to Eat Junk Food During Weight Loss

Food addiction is tough because unlike drug and alcohol addiction, we can’t give up food.

I do NOT recommend giving up all junk food when you need to lose weight.

Nothing magical happens at goal weight.

• If you plan to ever eat cake again, you need to learn how to eat cake now.

• If you plan to ever eat potato chips again, it’s best to learn to manage potato chips now.

In fact, the number one mistake I see people make is being overly restrictive with food. They drastically cut back on calories, food groups, and treats, and then binge on them later, especially at night and on the weekends.

This binge and restrict cycle keeps you hopelessly stuck.

How to Eat Treats and Still Lose Weight

How can you learn to eat treats moderately?

The Holy Mess Treat Box method has worked for me and thousands of women I work with. You are going to create a treat box to give you a hands-on strategy to manage treat foods.

Why Have a Treat Box?

You are going to create your own personal treat box and fill it with your favorite high-calorie junk foods.

Right now you are probably thinking,

Sara, I need to get away from junk food! I have major pounds to lose. The last thing I need is to bring high-calorie food into the house.

-Holy Mess readers everywhere

I get it, and I would have said the same thing 100 pounds ago.

Stick with me on this. You aren’t going to bring in all your junk foods in Costco-sized bags for you to binge on.

This is a step-by-step, safe method to teach yourself how to systematically manage treat foods in a healthy way.

Why You Need a Treat Box

Here are reasons why you need a treat box during weight loss:

• Having a treat box calms you down. Once you know junk foods are available, you don’t have to constantly fantasize about them.
• You know you have your foods available and family members won’t eat them. If you find yourself tempted to “finish this off before someone else eats it” then this is especially important for you.
• You are worthy of treats. Often those of us who are overweight are deeply ashamed of our food desires. You are worthy of having hunger and an appetite because you are alive. You are worthy of enjoying food.
• Eliminate secret eating. You are a grown-up. The time has come to stop secret eating, sneak eating, hiding food wrappers, and re-buying foods you’ve eaten before other people find out about it.
• You have a safe place to store food for later. I don’t know about you, but food seems to come into my world. My kids bring stuff home, people gift us with food, or I attend an event or meeting where there’s food. Sometimes it’s food I want to eat, but it doesn’t fit into today’s plan or calorie/points budget, so it goes into my treat box for later.

How to Create Your Weight Loss Treat Box

Follow these steps.

Step 1: Choose a Storage Box

Choose a box that fits into your pantry and will hold the snacks you enjoy the most.

Follow these guidelines:

• Do not use a clear box. Remember the truth of calorie density. Your primitive food drive will drive you to the food that you see. You want high-calorie foods to be out of your line of sight.
• You can use a shoebox, photo storage box, or other cardboard box, although I prefer something a bigger.
• I prefer a plastic box that I can clean in case any food gets spilled.
• Start with creating a box for your pantry. If you find that the Holy Mess Treat Box is a helpful strategy for you, consider adding a box or section to your refrigerator and one to your freezer.

This is the box I have:

Here are some other box options:

Step 2: Label Your Box

Mark the outside of your treat box with your name.

Tell your family that foods in your box are for you. If you want to buy them separate food items or help them create their own boxes, that’s smart. Everyone in my family has a treat box, even though most of them don’t have food or weight issues.

If you have weight issues, you probably have boundary issues. You may struggle to stand up for yourself. Simply the act of creating this box may be challenging. This activity is especially important for you.

If you are crafty and want to decorate your box further, go for it. This is all yours.

Step 3: Add Guidelines & Affirmations

I recommend taping guidelines to the inside of your treat box and putting a few affirmations or Bible verses on the outside.

Here are the Holy Mess Treat Box guidelines. You can use mine or write your own. (Check out this guide to emotional eating with toddler voice vs. adult voice for further help.)

Treat Box Guidelines

1. Stock your treat box with individually wrapped or pre-portioned treats that you enjoy.
2. If a food is too triggering, don’t include it in your treat box yet. Triggering foods are ones that you are overly tempted to binge on, overeat, or finish the whole thing. That’s okay! Instead, plan to have one portion of that treat while outside the house. Click here to read more about trigger foods. If you binge on a food from your treat box, that’s a sign that you aren’t ready to include it yet.
3. You may include some heathier options (like diet cakes, sugar-free puddings, protein bars and cookies), but at least some of your treats need to be decadent (chocolate candy, chips).
4. Let family members know that food in this box is only for you, and you will be enjoying these treats guilt-free.
5. Plan for your treat foods to fit into your daily’s calorie or points allowance. For WW members, you can use your weekly flex points for treats.
6. Sit and savor anything you eat from your treat box. Do not eat standing up. Do not eat in the pantry. Do not zone out. At least half of your treats are to be eaten without distraction from your phone, TV, or reading. Sit down and slowly savor the taste of the food. If you want it so much, why not sit and completely enjoy it?
7. No secret eating. Eat without guilt, in full view of others. Do not hide wrappers or apologize. (If your family will ask for your treats, buy them a separate portion.)
8. You choose how many treats you eat per day or week. Some people eat one treat (or more) every day. Other people find they do better with limiting treats to a few times per week.
9. Plan in advance for treats. Ideally, treat foods should be planned for in advance so you are sure they will fit within your calorie or points budget. Deciding in the moment is a sign of food cravings. Giving in to food cravings makes the cravings stronger. Deciding in advance is done with the logical, thinking part of your brain.

Affirmations Around Eating Treats

I find weight loss affirmations incredibly helpful. Affirmations are statements of truth. They are declarations of who you are and who you want to be.

Affirmations are written in the positive.

Write a few of these on your box, or write them on a card or sticky note and stick them to the outside.

• I enjoy planned treats guilt-free.
• I am free to enjoy all foods.
• Nothing magic happens at goal weight.
• Choose today what you will choose for a lifetime.
• Sit & savor.
• I eat sitting down.
• Adult me drives the car. (Learn more about toddler vs. adult voice here.)
• I am worthy.
• I can do hard things.
• When I’m eating, I only eat.
• I can be trusted around treat foods.
• God will provide a way out. (Click here for Christian weight loss affirmation free printable cards and click here for Bible verses for weight loss.)

Step 4: Fill Your Box with Treats

Now it’s time for the fun part, which is filling your box with treats. However, there is important strategy to making your food choices.

Do NOT fill your box with a huge variety of junk food that you’ll be overly tempted to binge on. That’s only going to push you further into disordered eating and away from your weight loss goals.

For a full explanation of how to choose treat foods without triggering overeating and binging, click this post about Freedom from Trigger Foods: a 4 Step Approach.

Here is how to choose treat foods for your box:

• Choose foods that are enjoyable but will not trigger a desire to binge. These are moderately enjoyable, but relatively safe-for-you foods. This might be cookies, chips, or candy you enjoy but are not your very favorites.
• For foods that are more triggering, considering buying one portion at a time, like one candy bar.
• Choose a small amount of foods, perhaps 2-4 types of treats and 2-4 portions of each item.
• Buy pre-packaged, individual servings when possible.
• You can pre-portion foods yourself into plastic containers and zipper bags, but only if you won’t be tempted to snack on them while portioning them out or sneak little bites from the packages later. Yes, they are more costly, but many of us find that factory-sealed individual portions are wiser than buying a whole bag.
• Plan for this to be a process that will take practice and experimentation. (I’ve been doing this for a couple years now and I’m still working on it.)
• Plan to gradually work on including one highly desired treat food at a time.
• You may experience feelings of guilt, nervousness, excitement, fear, abandon, pleasure, worry, and more. That’s all completely normal.
• Relax and have fun with it as much as you can. You get to eat guilt-free chocolate!

Step 5: Savor & Enjoy

You’ll have the most success if you plan treat foods in advance. Because these foods are higher in calories and calorie-dense, you need to plan them into your calorie or points budget.

• I pre-track, which means I plan my food right into my food tracking app, the night before.
• Plan to eat your treat food when you have eaten a snack or meal first, not when you are starving. Eating some vegetables or protein first will help regulate blood sugar.
• Eat your treat foods during times when you can sit and savor the experience.
• Enjoy treats during times when you are not as likely to overeat. Many of us are night overeaters so you might consider eating your treats after lunch and sticking to whole foods during the evening hours.
• It’s okay to limit treats to weekends, but if you find you are binging all weekend long and then starting over on Monday, that means you are being too restrictive during the week. Add in weekday treats and see if this helps.
• Sit down and savor your treat in full view of others. No secret or sneak eating. Eat without distractions at least half of the time. You looked forward to this treat – now fully appreciate and enjoy it.
• Enjoy your treat free from shame or self-discrimination. You have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about it.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about the Treat Box Strategy

Here are answers to questions we receive most often about the treat box concept.