How do you bounce back from a bad day?

I currently am about 800 calories over my suggested calorie amount. I had fast food today. How do you guys bounce back from this kind of thing and keep on being healthy?

Replies

  • Ioensis_jamesii
    Ioensis_jamesii Posts: 3 Member
    Everyday starts new.
  • Pastaprincess1978
    Pastaprincess1978 Posts: 371 Member
    By not dwelling - also I like to fast in the mornings anyway - and even more when still full from the day before. Delay lunch until about 2pm- except of course coffee ( I need it)! Then have health fruit or salad with lean protein.

    Then do your best to stay within a normal dinner. Distract yourself with diet soft drink if necessary.
  • Ahanaz
    Ahanaz Posts: 353 Member
    edited April 2018
    Every day is a new day. I make it easy for me in the sense that I do 16h fast every day. There's only so much you can eat in 8h ;)
    Another tip is to plan ahead so you know how much you can afford for that meal that isn't planned, or how much leeway you have if you do plan all meals.
    I also try to stick to double digit carbs (60g) and compensate the other calories in forms of protein (meat) and fats (sauces, cheese, etc). If I do fries I only do a few strips (<10) to still my cravings for it. It's amazing how much more you can eat if you skip bread, pasta, deep fried, rice, and potatoes.
    If you want to know more, I'm following dietdoctor.com combined with a calorie limit. Has worked wonders for me! :smile:
  • seat151
    seat151 Posts: 172 Member
    My way is too allow myself a "naughty" day once a week
  • SabAteNine
    SabAteNine Posts: 1,867 Member
    First win is to resist the urge to say „oh *kitten* it” and take a hammer to what's left of the day.

    Second win is when I get to look at the weekly stats and see that I was able to compensate and that it's all about averages.
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,534 Member
    Log everything. Maybe think a bit on how you went over 800 calories and why. You don’t say how this happened, there are a lot of possibilities.

    If it were me, I’d look at the diary for the day, shrug and say to myself something like “Well, that wasn’t particularly helpful.” And move onto tomorrow vowing to plan better in the future.

    What I would NOT do is think that missing my number was a reason to abandon my diary. If you embrace the process, there’s no bounce back required, the process- plan, execute, record the results, problem solve and adjust as needed, keeps going.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Did you know you can check your weekly calorie intake?

    Diary>Nutrition>Calories>Week View> Net Calories

    It doesn't matter if you go over your limit on one day.

    So long as your weekly calories are in balance (you don't want to be too high OR too low) it doesn't matter about one day.
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  • cbstewart88
    cbstewart88 Posts: 453 Member
    Comb my moustache in front of the fire whilst listening to acid jazz.

    LOL MidLyfeCrises!!!! :smiley:
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    800 calories is likely under to slightly over your maintenance. Impact: if you eat 800 calories higher than your budgeted dieting calories every single day for a whole week, not just a day, you would gain 0-1/2 a pound, or may even lose if 800 calories is under your maintenance.

    The impact of one day is negligible unless you allow it to affect the way you feel about yourself and dieting. Losing 0.25 pounds less one week, but keeping positive and consistent will achieve much more than falling into a guilt cycle and the binge-restrict mentality that often accompanies it, followed by being unhappy, burning out, and quitting.

    How do I bounce back from a bad day? I don't. I don't consider it a bad day, just a higher calorie day. Dieting to me is a continuous thing, not a wagon you hop on and off of. There are days where I'm not hungry sometimes, and I don't eat much and end the day under calories. These days don't upset me, so why would higher calorie days upset me? You're more hungry sometimes, less hungry other time. You have more cravings sometimes, fewer cravings other times. You go out with family and friends sometimes, and eat home other times. It's all normal. Why do we accept variation in other things in our lives but not variation in eating while dieting?

    What you can do about this is this: think why you overate. If it's a controllable reason, try to think of strategies that would make it happen less often (are your calories too low? are you restricting foods? did you over-exert yourself in a workout and didn't eat back the calories? Were there foods within your reach you're just not good at moderating?...etc). If you were just hungry, think what you ate and if the foods you ate were not very filling. Take notes and move on. Even if you have a strategy for every situation and eat perfectly filling foods every time, there will be times where you overeat. It's normal. Working on making it happen less often is a better goal than expecting to keep to a static calorie intake every single day regardless of what happens in your life or mind.
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,594 Member
    Look at your weekly stats in calories and you will likely find you are still on track for the week. One day does not define you
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    I remind myself that one day, in the grand scheme of things, means nothing. I then tell myself, "So I'll hit goal weight one day later; I've been at this since October 2016; I've dropped over 100lbs, and one bad day is not going to pile them all back."
  • pageohana6
    pageohana6 Posts: 49 Member
    Funny u ask this as I just logged some late night snacks from last night...I was over my daily calorie goal by 300 calories.

    I feel like a failure for snacking so much on top of going out to eat lunch for moms bday. But, I want to stay accountable to me, so I logged it, and starting fresh again today. I told myself, it happened, can’t change it but learn from it.

  • JBApplebee
    JBApplebee Posts: 481 Member
    I'll go back to back @ 9Round. Then I look back & see where I went off the rails & fix the issue. I has a bad stretch & decided to take extra lean protein in my lunch & that prevented me from wanting to hit the vending machine, or instead of taking an entire jumbo bag of trail mix to work, make individual size bags so the temptation is gone.

    But ultimately, you have to put it in the rear view & focus on today.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Log it and move on
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  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    Log it and move on

    Agreed. I log it and keep on as usual.
  • mikeandcris
    mikeandcris Posts: 8 Member
    Become optimistic...be a "glass is half full" type of person. One bad day leads to 7 good days!
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    log it and move on. so long as you don't do it all the time, it doesn't matter that much in the long run
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited April 2018
    allikost wrote: »
    I currently am about 800 calories over my suggested calorie amount. I had fast food today. How do you guys bounce back from this kind of thing and keep on being healthy?

    You just carry on...you have to dump the all or nothing mentality. All or nothing isn't remotely realistic...they're are always going to be bad days, bad weeks, etc...what matters is the cumulative of doing what you need to be doing most of the time. Everything else is just a small bump in the road.

    Part of an overall healthy lifestyle is realizing that you don't have to be 100% all the nutritious foods all of the time. I don't know anyone who does that, and I know a lot of really healthy and fit people.