I feel TERRIBLE about my cheat meal last night
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You all are awesome, thank you sooooooooo much for taking the time to respond. I feel *SO* much better and each of you had such awesome/insightful things to say.0
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that's it? u feel bad bout that?0
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Everyone has to have a little fun sometime or what is the point? Life is not a rehearsal, its to be enjoyed, so be happy that you were able to afford and consume the food you did (lots of people in the world dont have enough to eat!), and resolve to get back on the wagon today.0
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in my opinion...when you do an elimination type diet, you're more likely to have large binges. Why not consider allowing treats normally in your calorie allowance to that you won't be faced with cheat meals where you feel bad afterward?
oh and one meal doesn't ruin months of work....
food is food, don't demonize it.
This!!! I'm at goal weight, and I still have pizza at least once a week. Just work it into your calorie allowance. And if you're over one day, just balance it out the rest of the week. The more you obsess about it, the more your body won't do what you want it to! lol0 -
You will be fine, nothing wrong with cheat days. Don't stress about it.0
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It was a cheat meal, exactly that, if you make yourself feel bad about it, then you have defeated the purpose of the cheat meal, just eat healthily for the rest of the week, and then when you have next weeks cheat meal enjoy it fully and don't punish yourself, if you keep driving yourself crazy everytime you have a cheat meal, there is no point of having one, the point is to not make yourself go crazy with never getting things you probably shouldn't eat, but, you need to enjoy it or you'll just end up burning out anyway. So, just relax and enjoy your cheat meal0
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Exactly! This is your life. A lifestyle change means for the long run. And you can't go in with the mentality that you'll never overindulge, that you'll always eat perfectly, that you'll even control your cheat meals. Sometimes we eat more than we intended. Sometimes we eat food with way more calories than we thought. It's life. One "bad" meal (which isn't really bad, it's just more calories than you planned on eating) isn't going to make you gain 30 pounds, or even 1 pound. Anything you've done can be undone in the future- you've already seen evidence of that through your gain and loss. You'll be fine! Don't ever let what you eat make you feel so guilty that you then overcompensate for it. This is all about developing a *healthy* relationship with food, which means you don't beat yourself up over a meal. If you wanted it and you ate it, then good. Great! You had a nice, big meal after months of eating clean. You'll be just fine.Get out of the "Cheat" mentality and realize that this is your life. In real life, you are going to go out and eat, sometimes overeat....And that OKAY! One high calorie meal wont make you fat just like one low calorie meal wont make you skinny. If you go out to eat and you splurge, enjoy it and move on with the next meal....0 -
Mate, I had subway yesterday for lunch and in the evening went to the cinema and ate a regular sweet popcorn. I then went out for dinner and had chipotle chicken wings, enchiladas and rice, a mojito and a glass of house white. I probably ate more than my allocated calories but I don't feel terrible about this.
Why? Because I don't do it all of the time. Once in a while I like to treat myself and think I deserve to because the rest of the time I work hard, I eat as clean as I can and I eat at a calorie deficit.
Today I got up and trained, today I shall eat within my calorie goal and today and I shall smile at the memories of those lovely enchiladas and that cheeky mojito!!
You are doing great, continue as you are, enjoy your treats and keep working towards your goals.
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Hey, and welcome!!
I have been in maintenance for 7 months now and I hate to tell you, but the effort doesn't stop when you reach you goal. To me, it seems like you are an all-or-nothing kind of person. You gained 45 lbs in 6 months, and then you lost almost all of that in 2.5 months. I have a feeling that this cycle will continue for a long time unless you can really change your mindset about food. The #1 purpose of food, as we all know, is to fuel our body. We want to strive to eat as healthy as we can and in caloric amounts that our bodies need. There are also other purposes of food though. There's Thanksgiving. There's birthday and wedding cakes. There's pot lucks at work. There's Sunday dinner with the family. Can you really go through your entire life without ever having a few slices of pizza? Or a huge cookie? Or a piece of cake at your friend's wedding? I can't!
Weight loss and dieting (long term) isn't all-or-nothing. It's a balance. You are clearly eating healthy and at a huge deficit, so one day of pizza and a cookie will not ruin anything. It is a small reminder that you are human, and that sometimes you just need some pizza and a cookie.
Try to find a little bit of balance. I understand wanting to reach your goals as fast as possible, but slow and steady really helps with breaking old habits and creating new ones, and also teaching yourself balance and that it's okay to cheat every now and then. If your cheat days become more frequent than your deficit days, you will probably plateau and maybe gain, but every now and then won't hurt at all.
Good luck!
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Hey, and welcome!!
I have been in maintenance for 7 months now and I hate to tell you, but the effort doesn't stop when you reach you goal. To me, it seems like you are an all-or-nothing kind of person. You gained 45 lbs in 6 months, and then you lost almost all of that in 2.5 months. I have a feeling that this cycle will continue for a long time unless you can really change your mindset about food. The #1 purpose of food, as we all know, is to fuel our body. We want to strive to eat as healthy as we can and in caloric amounts that our bodies need. There are also other purposes of food though. There's Thanksgiving. There's birthday and wedding cakes. There's pot lucks at work. There's Sunday dinner with the family. Can you really go through your entire life without ever having a few slices of pizza? Or a huge cookie? Or a piece of cake at your friend's wedding? I can't!
Weight loss and dieting (long term) isn't all-or-nothing. It's a balance. You are clearly eating healthy and at a huge deficit, so one day of pizza and a cookie will not ruin anything. It is a small reminder that you are human, and that sometimes you just need some pizza and a cookie.
Try to find a little bit of balance. I understand wanting to reach your goals as fast as possible, but slow and steady really helps with breaking old habits and creating new ones, and also teaching yourself balance and that it's okay to cheat every now and then. If your cheat days become more frequent than your deficit days, you will probably plateau and maybe gain, but every now and then won't hurt at all.
Good luck!
Thank you so much for your response! I appreciate it a lot and you made great points.
My thing is, this is all new to me. I never ever felt guilty about "cheat" meals or foods that were over my caloric limit. I just ate what I needed/wanted to, and moved on.
It wasn't until I gained these 45 pounds (I've never been this heavy my whole life) and tried to lose it that I started to have this fear about food.
I always ate what I wanted if I wanted it, in moderate circumstances, and never felt guilty, because I was always active and at a reasonable weight. So I all of a sudden developed this fear of food/weight gain in January when I gained all this weight LOL... so I think you're right, I have to revisit my past mind frame before the weight gain, where I was OK with balance and knowing that I wasn't going to go downhill because of a higher calorie-based meal.0 -
Get out of the "Cheat" mentality and realize that this is your life.
Exactly, the term "Cheat Meal" or "Cheat Day" just reinforces unhealthy attitudes.
One day of deviation from your objectives isn't going to cause you an issue, a trend does leave you something to think about in terms of lifestyle achievability.0 -
i love giant chocolate chip cookies!!! and tonight im going to take the kids to johns incredible pizza. yes, that is all you can eat pizza place. holla!!! and i will not feel guilty. so please dont feel bad about 3 slices.0
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Honestly, three pieces of plain pizza and a huge cookie really aren't that bad, and I tend to be on the conservative side of food.0
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Bad relationships with food is why many fail at weight loss. Food is just food. Yeah sometimes you go over calories, but by in large if you're consistent with your efforts, one day isn't going to hamper it.
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
By now everyone's told you it's nothing to worry about, and they're right. I just want to say it was good reading the thoughts of someone who thinks similar to me. I've lost 5lbs in two weeks and committed to doing more, but yesterday was a special occasion and I ate the most disgusting food imaginable (egg, sausage, hashbrown and biscuit breakfast; cream pie; Doritos; ice cream - this was bad even by my standards). At the end of the day I felt like maybe my body had fallen out of this "weight loss mode" but it's hard to wrap your mind about that being bogus.0
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Hey ... you've done awesome so far. Don't beat yourself up over pizza and a giant cookie. I'm a caregiver for my dad and he wants pizza every week. I get the Pizza Hut thin crust and will eat 2-3 pieces or I'll have 2 pieces of the hand tossed. If I know I'm getting pizza for supper, I will just plan it into my daily calories. Sometimes I will plan out my whole day when I know I'm going out and having a higher calorie meal during the day. That way I can plan to allow a few more calories for the unknown meal.
I really like what someone else commented about that it takes 3500 calories to equal a pound. If you have a cheat day every now and then (which I do once a week), just try to not go over that 3500 and you will be fine.
I go out to eat with my friends every now and then for Italian or Mexican and believe me I've checked out the calories and one meal can be 800-1000 calories or more. I try to plan ahead what I'm going to order and then I ALWAYS request a To Go Box at the beginning of my meal. I take half of the meal out right off the bat and get to enjoy it the next day. It cuts my calories in half and I've always been able to stay within my calorie goals. Like others have said, if you cut yourself off completely from enjoying meals you love until you lose the weight, you'll end up putting the pounds back on when you start allowing yourself those treats.
The key is to learn how to lose weight and still enjoy Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner or going out with friends every now and then. Just learn to plan around it -- plan what you're going to have and work the other meals around it -- do a little more exercises that day to burn some extra calories. Don't beat yourself up if you do go over 1 day. A "cheat day" is actually good for you, as long as you get back on the wagon the next day. This is a life change, not a diet. It has to be something you can live with the rest of your life.
I've been doing Fitness Pal since February 2013 and have lost over 80 pounds. It is possible to lose weight and still enjoy occasional cheat days. Congratulations on your current success. Hang in there and you will meet your goals! (Sorry I got on a band wagon there. I guess I needed to remind myself of some of this as well. It's a constant battle, but SO COOL when you go down a size and see the progress.)0 -
Dude keep on keepin' on...........0
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Don't think of it as a "cheat"...it's life...nobody is spot on 100% of the time, it's pretty much impossible. You have to realize that a healthy lifestyle is all about what you're doing 80-90% of the time, not 10% of the time. You're going to have bad days...bad weeks....hell, you're going to have bad months...but in the grand scheme of forever these are just blips.
Also, stop thinking of food in terms of "good" and "bad"...there are certainly more nutrient and less nutrient dense foods...but food is food...it's fuel...that is all...it is neither inherently good or evil. Labeling as such leads to some really unhealthy relationships with food and is often the downfall of many who are trying to achieve optimal nutrition and fitness. Maybe cut yourself some slack and have a slice of pizza or two every now and then instead of going months and months depriving yourself only to eat an entire pizza in a day...stuff like that. Get your nutrition on 80-90% of the time, but don't be afraid to treat yourself to that 10%.0 -
Do you think I messed up my regime or my weight loss efforts?
No.
Proceed.0 -
Good point! Maybe start thinking of it as a "Treat", rather than a cheat????Get out of the "Cheat" mentality and realize that this is your life.
Exactly, the term "Cheat Meal" or "Cheat Day" just reinforces unhealthy attitudes.
One day of deviation from your objectives isn't going to cause you an issue, a trend does leave you something to think about in terms of lifestyle achievability.0
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