"Cheating"

PuzzleGirl65

I've been at this thing a little over three weeks now. I've been steadily losing weight the whole time and feel better than I've felt in my whole life (despite still being way overweight). I've been under my calorie goal every day, I drink TONS of water, I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables than I ever have and I've completely stayed away from the sugary crap I love. I've exercised every day for something like 17 days in a row now, which is something I've NEVER done in my whole life. I'm doing really really well and I feel fantastic.

I haven't "cheated" at all since I started and I'm feeling like today might be the day. But here's the thing. If I'm gonna cheat, I don't want it to be for one measly chocolate covered granola bar (which I adore), or a couple hundred calories from whatever else I decide to have. Because that's not even worth it. If I'm gonna cheat I'm going to eat an 8" Ledo's Pizza with pepperoni and hamburger and jalapenos with a side of baked cheese fries. And then maybe stop at Baskin-Robbins on the way home. But, you know what? I'm preetttty sure that would make me violently ill, not to mention that I would hate myself.

So. I just thought I would post about it here so you all can go "OMG I play those same kind of head games with myself!" and give me some support and/or advice. Thanks for reading. You guys really are the best!

MsKeelah919

I dont understand that rationale. If I cheat, I definately want it to be worth it. I also dont want to have to spend two weeks readjusting and getting back to weight loss. so the cheat hast to meet somewhere in the middle. I have to feel satisfied having eaten it, without guilt or disgust. This for me equates to a couple of glasses of wine or a cup of icecream. not in the same day, of course! LOL Good luck!

juliapurpletoes

I never really feel the need to "cheat", I eat what I want BUT I build it into my caloires for the day even if I have to exercise a bit more than usual.

I think I read somewhere that we'll be more successful at this if we approach it as a lifestyle change........so you can still include the rich yummy ice creams and other stuff.

:glasses:

trimom63

Oh, I KNOW that feeling....YOU know me...just yesterday I did that!! However, I still had what I wanted and kept it within reason, and you can too!!! My thoughts about that kind of thing before I started this was that if I cheated, I might as well cheat big and carry it through the rest of the day ...... that tomorrow would be a new start. Problem was, the "new starts" were coming more and more often!! When I started journalling, THAT'S when I quit the "tomorrow is a new day" speech to myself on an "all-to-often" basis...if you're going to cheat...do it within moderation!! A PIECE of pizza, one scoop of ice cream....and, for God's sake, leave those cheesy fries completely out of the picture!!! hahahaha!!!!

PandaFit450

I agree!!
If I'm going to cheat, then it will be mega and I will deserve the guilt afterwards and have to work it off !!

:laugh:

amazing_grace♥

I never really feel the need to "cheat", I eat what I want BUT I build it into my caloires for the day even if I have to exercise a bit more than usual.

I think I read somewhere that we'll be more successful at this if we approach it as a lifestyle change........so you can still include the rich yummy ice creams and other stuff.

:glasses:

That's exactly what I do. When I first started, I would sometimes "cheat" on the weekend (only one day), but then it would take me 2 or 3 days to get back to where I was before I "cheated". That was depressing. So I quit "cheating". If i want to eat something, I make myself do MORE exercise - any kind of exercise - in order to build up some extra calories for those adult beverages out with the girls or cheesecake or whatever!! It is working GREAT for me!!

Good luck to YOU!!

Aliceolson

Well, I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "cheating." Is that eating more than you should? Or something you shouldn't? Or is it lying on your food diary? I don't think that eating something you shouldn't or exceeding your daily budget of calories is cheating -- it's just defeating your purpose. But lying on your food diary -- now that's not okay, in my estimation. That makes everyone else think "PazzleGirl is PERFECT! Why can I be perfect too?" and then they feel bad about themselves if they go over budget.

Now, I was pretty sure,e arlier this week when we had company coming for dinner that I would exceed my budget -- so I didn't eat a bite all day until dinner time. Not very smart, I suppose, but it turns out, I was able to stay within budget and I was happy about that. I fear that tonight will be a different story. I had no appetite yesterday and I finished the day hundreds of calories below my daily budget. But I woke up ravenous this morning and for reasons I won't go into here, I ate a luscious beef empanada for breakfast. Yikes! Then, I ate a salad with chicken and creamy garlic dressing (you know the one) for lunch. And, tonight, we are taking our neighbor out for dinner -- a commitment we made long before I even started this program, so there's no reneging on this date. i only have about 600 calories left and I expect I'll exceed budget today for the first time since I came to MyFitnessPal. I intend to be honest about it, even if I'm disappointed in myself and know that you might be disappointed too. So, I'm not thinking of it as cheating -- I'm thinking of it as exceeding my daily budget.

Now, is it some kind of cheating to do all this rationalizing before going over budget? Or is it just setting myself up for a not great daily diary? That's something to think about.

PuzzleGirl65

Thanks, everybody! Just thought I'd give you an update. First of all, Aliceolson brings up a good point (and I'm not just saying that because she's my mom). What exactly do I even mean by cheating? No, I definitely did NOT mean that I would lie on my food diary. And it wasn't solely about going over my calorie allowance. It was more about eating stuff that I just KNOW is not good for me. In my head, that mostly means the sugary crap I was talking about earlier, but then for my example I used pizza (and cheese fries!), so I guess it's not totally just about the sweets either. Although I think it started out as wanting something sweet and then deciding if I was going to do that I might as well go all out and get Ledo's.

So anyway, what I really came on here to say is that I exercised quite a bit more when I got home from work and ended up with a TON of extra calories. I ate the same dinner I've eaten several times since I started at MFP and with the extra calories I had racked up for the day I treated myself to ... a chocolate covered granola bar. And now I'm done eating for today.

So it looks to my like the summary of my day it: lots of drama in my head and then a very happy ending. :happy: