Motivation after a cheat day(s)

cierra793

I just had 3 days where I wasn’t *completely* off the rails, but ate out and did not track calories. I knew these days were coming and I had been doing SO good up to that point. I am up 2 lbs and NEED to get back on track. I have lots of events coming up soon where food may be an issue for me but I don’t want to say *eff it*! What are your best tips and tricks to get you back on track after an off day?

mbandqb4eva

You can always start over or "get back on track." I just gear myself up as if its my first time and never get too hard on myself. Good luck!

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Lenala13

Just get back to logging. It’s what I do. I usually struggle on vacations/travel where I’m relying on eating out more than cooking at home. I also don’t travel with a food scale, so my entries are guesstimates, if I log at all. I usually gain during that time, and then jump back on the wagon when I get home. After a week or two of normal eating/logging, I see loses again. The worst thing I’ve done in the past is to stop logging regularly when I got home. Gained almost all my weight back that took a year to get off initially. Not gonna let that happen again. Life happens, it’s okay, enjoy it, just go back to holding yourself accountable before you’re back where you started.

NovusDies

I don't cheat. I am always on track.

I do sometimes eat a large abundance of food and calories but that is life and my plan makes allowances for it. I don't care what I do on the small minority of days I only care what I do on the vast majority of them.

Since I never stop or even pause there is never a reason to "get back", "resume", or "start over".

I am also fairly kind to myself as I lose weight. I don't restrict, I moderate. Usually when I have been eating a lot of food after a few days I am ready to eat normally again.

smoofinator

One or even a few higher-than-normal days will not undo the progress you've made. Read this, give yourself a break, and go back to eating normally: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope/p1

Strudders67

I look at my weekly average via the app and aim for that average to be close to my calorie goal (or at least below my maintenance figure).

LyndaBSS

Eat it. Enjoy it. Log it.

I don't believe in cheat days or meals. I eat my favorites, log them and that's it. Period. If I pay with a fluctuation, oh well. That's life. Nothing will keep me from my ultimate goal.

RelCanonical

One thing that helps me when I overeat is to still log. It keeps one habit up so even if I have an off day with eating, it's easier to get back to it because I'm still logging. Also helps because I can estimate how much I went over, and it's never as much as what the scale shows because water weight gain is common with overeating due to added salt intake (and food weight).

NovusDies

RelCanonical wrote: »

One thing that helps me when I overeat is to still log. It keeps one habit up so even if I have an off day with eating, it's easier to get back to it because I'm still logging. Also helps because I can estimate how much I went over, and it's never as much as what the scale shows because water weight gain is common with overeating due to added salt intake (and food weight).

Yep. I never stop logging. Even if I am guessing I would rather have a ballpark number than no number at all. Some people might enjoy the freedom of going off-book but I find it more freeing to log it. Besides I have to have numbers for my spreadsheet which is my primary means of overseeing my weight loss.

MileMarker641

There is a lot of wisdom and good sense in the posts above so without detracting from any of that I will just add that when I have had those situations it has helped a bit to look back objectively and try to figure out what made me go off the rails in the first place. Did I neglect to plan ahead? Was I in an environment or with someone that pushed my buttons? How can I control for that better next time so I can eat and enjoy and not feel like I been derailed? Good luck.

gallicinvasion

And by the way, you may be up 2 lbs on the scale, but you didn’t gain 2 lbs of fat! It’s just water weight, likely from higher sodium/carbs during your cheat day. It will fluctuate back down in no time.

nooboots

cierra793 wrote: »

I just had 3 days where I wasn’t *completely* off the rails, but ate out and did not track calories. I knew these days were coming and I had been doing SO good up to that point. I am up 2 lbs and NEED to get back on track. I have lots of events coming up soon where food may be an issue for me but I don’t want to say *eff it*! What are your best tips and tricks to get you back on track after an off day?

Theres no way you've put on 2lbs after 3 days.

I log everything but if I know I have gone over my allowance for a sustained length of time like a few days, a week while away, I just ignore the scale when I get back for a week or so. And then once Im back I just get back to the calorie allowance and carry on like nothing happned.

Over a month or so it will even out, thats why you cant take just the 3 days in isolation. The week before last, I was 900 cals over for the week, last week I was 1200 under, this week seems to indicate that I might be just on target as Ive had high days and low days. Ive lost my sense of taste and smell at the moment, something that I keep getting so although I have loads of calories left for this evening, I dont want to 'waste' them on food I cant taste!!

corinasue1143

One meal at a time. Log breakfast. While you’re at it, pre-log lunch. You can change it later if needed. Just start.

You say you knew it was coming, and you know you have some more coming.
Prepare. Think about it and tell yourself “I will allow x amount extra on x day. Then I will get right back to it on x day. It’s easier to do if you have a plan. If your plan doesn’t work exactly, adjust and move forward.