How to pick up the pieces after a few bad days?

TheFatLadyPortrait

With the holiday weekend (and my birthday) coming up, I know that I am going to overeat. A lot. Because when my family gathers, we do food. A lot of it. And I am fine with that. I have lost 50lb and I am fine with putting back on a few pounds over the weekend. But my biggest problem is that after I 'fall off the wagon' I sometimes have trouble getting back onto it. Especially where sugar is concerned.

I am worried that after a weekend laden with cake, and ice cream, and wine coolers that I am just gonna spiral into failure. It has happened before. I definitely want to eat the good stuff, but any suggestions for getting back on the horse?
I dont know if I should have posted in the advice section instead, but it feels like its not so much of a technique thing (because I know all of the basics of dieting) but an emotional thing.

vespiquenn

Just log it as best as you can and move on. The fact that you're okay that this might cause a fluctuation is already a good state of mind, because it probably will.

Logging, even if it is 100% accurate due to the nature of it, will help you stay accountable. That way, it'll be like you never stopped, making it easier to jump back on the horse.

TheFatLadyPortrait

vespiquenn wrote: »

Just log it as best as you can and move on. The fact that you're okay that this might cause a fluctuation is already a good state of mind, because it probably will.

Logging, even if it is 100% accurate due to the nature of it, will help you stay accountable. That way, it'll be like you never stopped, making it easier to jump back on the horse.

That's a good idea, though I do cringe at the thought of trying to put those calories on my diary and how much red there will be.

distinctlybeautiful

You haven't fallen off the wagon! You're still on it.. you just brought some less than healthy food along for a couple days! Ok, apparently I'm not very good with analogies, but what I mean is that as long as you're still focused and determined to make healthy choices a majority of the time, you haven't stopped anything by having a couple days of less nutritious food with more calories. It's just an inevitable part of this stuff if you're planning to do it for life. When I started looking at it that way, it became much easier to bounce back!

I also second the advice to log, even if it's a ton of food and even if you have to estimate. It keeps you honest and committed, and sometimes I even find it's not as many calories as I thought it'd be. The mind can be tricky, so putting it down in black and white is helpful, for me anyway.