New to MFP and feeling like a failure

krisrider26

I joined MFP approx 1 month ago and feel like for the first time in my life I am doing a good job with work out and food choices... until today. Today I am not doing so well. I just ate pizza for lunch and topped it off with a krispy kreme donut from my co-worker. This was a bad move I know I should not be eating those things, and have been able to avoid them for the most part. Today I totally caved and now I feel really bad. I feel bad emotionally and physically. I don't want to go back to where I was before and eat bad food all day long without any self control. After logging my food, I only have 283 calories left today, and my nutrition content for the day is horrible. Any advice on how to get back on track? I would appreciate any feedback anyone has.

rubyrenga

We all have bad days. Don't let it become so bad that it pulls you out of your game. Work out as much as you can this afternoon or this evening to get rid of some of those calories, and vow to do better tomorrow, and you will! You enjoyed a couple of treats--so what? Now beating yourself up about it won't change anything, but I bet you'll feel great if you take a nice long walk or put in a hard workout!

SueInAz

Tomorrow is a new day. Chalk this one up to experience and remember what it felt like to cave, even just a little. I find that it helps me to remember that any good feelings you get from eating bad food end the moment you swallow. The self-recrimination lasts MUCH longer and isn't worth it.

If you have time tonight, try to log some extra exercise to compensate and drink some extra water. Otherwise, just vow to start over tomorrow.

auntiebabs

It helped me to realize I didn't have to change everything all at once. All the millions of things I SHOULD be doing seeming overwheliming and impossible. I started by:

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (And there i ALWAYS stress)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me I did the math to find out the calories needed to maintain my goal weight and my current weight and I gave myself a range with 1200 as my rock bottom, lose 1 lb/wk as my target and maintain my goal weight as the top of my range. As long as I keep within in this range I'll lose. I tend to naturally zig zag my calories 3-4 at very close to my target and then a higher calorie day closer to the top of my range.

As long as I stayed under maintain my current weight calories I won't gain. So no need to throw in the towel, just pick-up where I left off. (just remember to recalculate this number as you lose weight)

Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.)

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.
Good Luck

Iceskatefanrn

Don't know if this will help you, but here's my analogy for your situation:

Let's say you just got home from grocery shopping and you are putting away a dozen eggs. You have a special fridge container for 'em so you are taking 'em out of their carton and putting them into the container one at a time. YOU DROP THE FIRST ONE.... SPLATTTT it goes on the kitchen floor! Oh man, you just dropped an egg! One egg! OK, well, might as well ditch the rest of em, I mean, you already dropped ONE so why bother putting the rest carefully away, right? Instead, I want you to take the rest of the eggs, one or two or 6 at a time and SLAM 'EM DOWN TO YOUR KITCHEN FLOOR! SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLATTTTT!!!!! MIght as well, right? I mean, you've already blown your day by dropping one, might as well destroy the rest 'cause you can always get another dozen tomorrow!

How does this relate to your healthy eating and weight loss goals? The PRIMARY GOAL each and EVERY day is to NEVER START with giving in to tempting foods, right? Of course it is! But every once in a while, EVERYONE HERE will eat something they will regret later. So, next time this happens to you, the next time you "drop an egg", PLEASE treat the rest of the eggs carefully and get them safely in the fridge. Meaning, treat the rest of your day carefully and get back on track with your NEXT MEAL, DON'T wait for the next day or the next week!

On a more direct personal note - APPLAUSE APPLAUSE APPLAUSE to you for coming here! This is the place to go when you've had a day like you have. So read on, get motivated, and protect the rest of your eggs!

You can do this!

:drinker:

Ice

nuttyfamily

You wouldn't be 'human' if you didn't have a high day at some point.

All you can do is try to eat better for the rest of today. Try getting in some exercise.

Tomorrow is a new day as they say.

At least you recognized it today. Sometimes, it takes me three days of bad eating to be like 'what in the world am I doing?'

Rae6503

Don't try to come in under calories today. Just eat a normal dinner and start over. Try really really really hard not to beat yourself up. It's just ONE MEAL. Not that bad.

traceyford

one day outta a month thats really good, focus on the positives and learn from your weaknesses... remember you are a month into it, go back and you'll be back at square one, and then how will you feel. dont forget why you started and and focus onhow well you have done ..... you go girl x

Angel1066

Bad days are part of this journey, suck it up and move on.You have to just get yourself motivated and get back on track. Good luck

Nikkiairforcewife

In my month I've had a couple days like that. And the funny thing is, it was PIZZA that triggered it. I have learned that I cannot eat pizza. That's my personal trigger to all things junk-foody.

That being said, it's already done. Journal it. And get in a good workout so you can have some extra calories to finish out the day.

Drink lots of water to flush the extra sodium out and you'll be just fine. This is merely a hiccup. It's not the end.

auntiebabs

Don't know if this will help you, but here's my analogy for your situation:

Let's say you just got home from grocery shopping and you are putting away a dozen eggs. You have a special fridge container for 'em so you are taking 'em out of their carton and putting them into the container one at a time. YOU DROP THE FIRST ONE.... SPLATTTT it goes on the kitchen floor! Oh man, you just dropped an egg! One egg! OK, well, might as well ditch the rest of em, I mean, you already dropped ONE so why bother putting the rest carefully away, right? Instead, I want you to take the rest of the eggs, one or two or 6 at a time and SLAM 'EM DOWN TO YOUR KITCHEN FLOOR! SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLATTTTT!!!!! MIght as well, right? I mean, you've already blown your day by dropping one, might as well destroy the rest 'cause you can always get another dozen tomorrow!

How does this relate to your healthy eating and weight loss goals? The PRIMARY GOAL each and EVERY day is to NEVER START with giving in to tempting foods, right? Of course it is! But every once in a while, EVERYONE HERE will eat something they will regret later. So, next time this happens to you, the next time you "drop an egg", PLEASE treat the rest of the eggs carefully and get them safely in the fridge. Meaning, treat the rest of your day carefully and get back on track with your NEXT MEAL, DON'T wait for the next day or the next week!

On a more direct personal note - APPLAUSE APPLAUSE APPLAUSE to you for coming here! This is the place to go when you've had a day like you have. So read on, get motivated, and protect the rest of your eggs!

You can do this!

:drinker:

Ice

Nice analogy!!!! great thinking. Love it!
-B

dont_give_up

Don't be so hard on yourself. We all have days like that, where we just need a break. I had my break a few weeks ago, and ate pizza, wings, cheesesticks and like you I was so upset with myself, and felt so sick after I ate everything, that I told myself that I would never do that again. What I do on my "free days" now is I just eat a small portion of my food. We had a big feast on 4th of July, and I just made sure I ate no more than a tablespoon of what I wanted. I was able to enjoy my food, and I wasn't so upset with myself afterward either.
Do some exercises, that will burn off some of what you ate.

Good luck!!

thefishers4

We all have those bad days hun. It's what we do with those bad days afterwards that is the key. Don't give up because of one day. I know if I did that I wouldn't be here right now. MFP people are the best to help you through your bad days. So keep your head up and don't let the food win.

tigersword

Write it off and start again tomorrow. I ate out for lunch today with my wife. Bad food that I know I can't eat every day, but I love. My lunch was over a thousand calories, and ridiculously high in sodium. I'm already over my calories because of it, and still have dinner to go. No sweat, today may be a loss, but tomorrow is back to normal. If you don't treat yourself to something ridiculous and delicious once in a blue moon, what's the point? :laugh:

Odds are 99 out of 100 "nice" sit down restaurant meals will probably have more calories that you're allowed for a day. Very easy to see a meal at a steak house hit 2,000 calories on it's own. Does that mean you should never go out to eat ever? Absolutely not, it just means you can't do it often, and plan for it, make adjustments for it, maybe work out a little longer that day, or if you're planning on losing a set amount of weight in a week, give yourself an extra week.

This isn't a race to drop pounds, it's a new way to live a healthy life. Everything in moderation. :happy:

Vhovell

Absolutely agree with everyone - it's only one day after all - just a little glitch...if you can do exercise/drink water then great but if not, it's not the end of the world. You sound very positive that you don't want to drop back to how you were so don't think one bad way will automatically change things back - you can do it

And anyway 1 day in a month is great i'm sure i'll have a bad day long before i get to a month of being on here )

Keep up the hard work and start afresh tomorrow

Good Luck xx

peachNpunkin

Don't get all excited about what you did today. You are not dead, you are human, and we make bad choices sometimes. Don't sweat it. Wake up tomorrow with a new day ahead of you and get yourself back on track. You are not a failure. You are a WINNER. Now go dust of your britches and get back on the playing field.