2 days of overeating :(

willsreb

My weight loss has been going great, I have been feeling extremely energised and just great in general for these past two months. This week it has been ‘my time of month’ and I suddenly felt emotionally very low as well as low energy. I have eaten well above maintenance for the last two days. I still went to the gym to do 40 mins cardio as I normally would, but couldn’t stop myself from over indulging.

To help combat this in the future, I will not keep any high calorie food in the house at all, so overeating this easily will not be possible..... but what else can I do to help the urge to eat when it’s my time of month?

I feel terrible but trying not to beat myself up. I have learned a hard lesson!

TavistockToad

Look at your weekly goal - at worst you're probably at maintenance.

emmamcgarity

I agree. I love taking the nutrition tab and looking at the weekly calorie intake stats. It helps me see that when I have a bad day that overall it doesn't impact my overall goals nearly as much as I thought. This helps stop my spiral and gets me out of the binge most of the time. I also listen to some weight loss motivational podcasts on my commute to and from work, and while walking for exercise. This helps keep me focused.

Don't beat yourself up. You have the right attitude. You can only change the future. The past is in the past.....

GrumpyHeadmistress

It happens. There are ways that you can learn from it though so that it doesn’t feel like you’ve failed (which you haven’t):

1. Think about why it happened in the first place. You mentioned TOM but that doesn’t naturally require you to eat more. It was a conscious (ok, semi-conscious) choice so maybe you can put coping strategies in place to deal with it next month. Nice non-food treats, maybe some gentle exercise like walking or swimming, anything that keeps you away from food. Push comes to shove - save some calories and treat yourself - but that’s a slippery slope for some.

2. Reassure yourself that you haven’t done any long term damage. One blip doesn’t destroy all your good work. It happens. Move on.

3. Don’t let 2 days become 3, or a week, or a month. Draw a line NOW and start again NOW. Don’t say “oh well, now I’ve blown it so I might as well eat what I want”. Start again NOW.

emmamcgarity

GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »

3. Don’t let 2 days become 3, or a week, or a month. Draw a line NOW and start again NOW. Don’t say “oh well, now I’ve blown it so I might as well eat what I want”. Start again NOW.

^^This is SO IMPORTANT

kimny72

When I was still losing, I ate up to my maintenance calories for those 2 or 3 days every month. I bought chocolate and a couple of single serve bags of potato chips specifically for the occasion and gave myself permission to eat them, no guilt. As long as that's where it stops, it's really not a big deal.

fitoverfortymom

Hang in there. I've been there for sure, and I still lost 100 lbs. Other posters have given you the right advice. Get back on track right away and go about your business. Of you first d your loss rate is too aggressive, look at adjusting to give yourself more daily calories.

kshama2001

kimny72 wrote: »

When I was still losing, I ate up to my maintenance calories for those 2 or 3 days every month. I bought chocolate and a couple of single serve bags of potato chips specifically for the occasion and gave myself permission to eat them, no guilt. As long as that's where it stops, it's really not a big deal.

Yup, I eat at maintenance calories for a few days once a month as well.

And when I go to the store for "period supplies" it is chocolate and potato chips too!

@willsreb the first sign I'm premenstrual is when I'm hungry for lunch earlier. So I eat lunch earlier. And have a snack before dinner, and a moderate treat afterwards.

Often, our metabolisms rev premenstrually so there's no need to feel guilty about eating a little more at that time.

Where I got into trouble was using it as an excuse to #eatallthefoods.

Kandisn29

A couple of bad days is totally what you make of it. You can just start all over. It might not even make a bit of difference. Maybe next time when TOM is coming, plan ahead, and load your kitchen with satisfying lower calorie treats. I love to make salty sweet potato chips in the oven, or get pints of halo top ice cream, etc. You could also work out a little bit more each day the week before TOM in preparation for the extra calorie intake. But please don't be upset about it, hormones are a hard thing to work around sometimes! You are doing great!

kristingjertsen

We all make this mistake. Forgive yourself, start over, and don't let this slow you down. It is a blip on the radar.

cherys

at TOM use some of your allotted calories for junk foods. You can eat chocolate and chips and still lose weight - so long as the food you eat around them doesn't exceed your goal. Also, maybe try some comfort foods that aren't high calorie: buy or make some veggie or chicken noodle soups, chill some diet sodas and get some frozen yoghurt fruit sticks or mini milk ice cream sticks that are between 35-70 cals each.

Take a fizzy mulitvit and some iron tonic in the morning each day to make sure you're not over eating due to cravings for extra minerals or nutrients that TOM depletes.