bad eating day... what next

awdamm

After you have a bad eating day, whether its eating TOO MUCH, or eating all the WRONG stuff... How do you bounce back? How do you recover from an "off day"?

landry1

i have one bad day per week so I don't feel deprived of anything. It's usually Sunday and then that night I prepare my healthy food for the next few days.

awdamm

not necessarily a "cheat day" but a day you just kinda a throw the towel in and eat things you just know you'll pay for.

I certainly have cheat days. Usually holiday, birthdays, special occasions but other days when you just don't stick to your plan.
(outside of cheat days)

GennyKert

Firstly you need to just stop for a second and think is this really what you want? It's never too late to turn the day around... sometimes I'll push myself to go to gym (even something as simple as a walk) and have a nice soup or piece of fish/salad for dinner. The next day I try to eat really healthy (not depriving yourself) but have plenty of veggies, fruit and some protein to kinda kick my system back into gear. If you can get past the next day without going crazy food-wise it is so much easier the following days to stick to the healthy stuff. Everyone has weak moments but you feel so good when you can stop yourself when you feel your overeating, recognise what your doing and turn your day around. hope this helps a little!

Frenchy86

The best advice I can give is to 'forgive' yourself. It is ok to have these 'cheat days', and still loose successfully. :-)

Someone posted about turning the day around - agreed! I try to squeeze in an exercise in on days like this, it just makes me feel better.

da_sammit

today is one of those days for me. i had a healthy breakfast, lunch wasnt so healthy.. dinner was good but then i slammed my face into a bowl of apple crumble and custard..

i recover by not limiting myself the next few days after.. i can have what i want, as long as its within the calorie limit. it may not be the healthiest option, but it satisfies my cravings and shrinks my stomach back down to non-over eating size. then after one or two days, those cravings wont be there anymore and you find yourself choosing the healthier options more often.

CaitlinFrost

Whether you have a bad day or just a bad meal, recognize that you had a bad minute, and gather yourself up and get ready for the next meal/day.
Don't let one bad meal ruin you frame of mind.

Keep looking forward and remember how great you felt last time you stood on the scales and saw a loss!

pretty_ribbons

well im definitly having a bad eating day today i am going to make sure i do an extra work out today (after my food goes down! lol)or tomorrow

fatty2fabby

let it go..get back to your healthy eating & exercise days..

yesiwillbeloosingit

I try to load up on fresh fruits and veg - drink loads of water and green tea and end the day with high protein meal

golope

I can relate. I went to a wedding this weekend and the first day I didn't follow my plan, but wasn't too far off. The second day I ate like I had no limit. I know it was in part because I drank too much at the reception. Who doesn't want to follow up a night of drinking with a giant breakfast buffet? I ate fruit, pecan roll, hashbrowns, bacon, sausage and french toast with syrup. Then the wonderful bride and groom brought out pizza for lunch for everyone (this was a 2-day wedding) and of course I had 3 slices of that and a bowl of chocolate covered pretzels. Go big or go home, right? lol UGH! When I got home and tracked all that I'd eaten over the weekend, I realized that colorie-wise, I'd eaten the equivalent of 2 1/2 days of calories in one day. This morning, I weighed myself and found that I'd gained back the 4 lbs. that I'd lost just by screwing up those 2 days. I feel so depressed having basically thrown away the hard work that I'd done to lose those 4 lbs. I'm back on the plan today, but its difficult to get back once you fall off. At least for me. When I get depressed about having screwed up, it kinda makes me say - Whatever, I guess I'll just be fat the rest of my life. I know thats a horrible pitty party for myself. So I'm back on the wagon now and I hope that you can work through your bad day and get back at it too. You're not alone!

twilightsm

I try budgeting "unhealthy" foods into my allowed calorie intake. For example, one day I had enough calories left over that I could totally walk to Burger King and chow down on a Whopper and small fries. And it was the best tasting Whopper ever!

If I find out that I'm over my calerie intake, I do a quick 20 min. workout to make it up. That why, I'm not deprived of my favorite foods, but I'm still under my calorie goal.

ChristineS_51

Another one here who fell off the wagon on the weekend - visitors, away from home, etc. Stinking hot so no walking. But I just drew the curtain on those days, made sure today I ate really well (as best I could), and had an extra fast walk (that's my exercise at the moment whilst I am still so overweight).

It takes practice and planning to make healthy choices all the time - and the more we practice it the better we will all get. And beating ourselves up when we do fall off the rails just makes us feel guilty, miserable, depressed and we turn to food again. NOOOOOOO we can do it!

Make healthy choices whereever possible - choose something different, choose the least worst, smaller helpings, water in between booze, small bites so it takes longer to eat whatever it is. It is hard when you are out, but I guess if we look at what those gorgeous skinny people are eating and follow their lead?? Do gorgeous skinny people eat ANYTHING? :laugh:

Onwards and downwards!

awdamm

Thanks for all the advice everyone! Oh and the "i'm not alone" helps a little bit too.

I allow for not to "great choices" most everyday. I try to avoid them but certainly enjoy them when I do indulge in them. My problem this past time was I hadn't eatin any fried food in a long time and decided that I wanted to eat FRIED calamari, and then ordered FRIED ONION RINGS with my sandwich. Just a big TUMMY no no! after not having it for a while. I paid for it for a little over 24 hrs and now I'm all good. ate much better the following day and didn't gain and all that fun stuff.

Now if I could only get back on the work-out circuit!!! I've got a wedding this saturday that I'm in and after that my schedules basically becomes CLEAR ( besides for work and family stuff) and dammit I'm getting back on the work-out wagon! Right now I'm just focusing on eating the right stuff AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! I have upped my raw veggie and fruit intake so that's good!

thanks again peeps!

Kim_08

Go to the gym and try to burn off most of the bad calories I've eaten.. and if I'm not motivated to do that, I just think positive and remember tomorrow is a new day!

awdamm

Go to the gym and try to burn off most of the bad calories I've eaten.. and if I'm not motivated to do that, I just think positive and remember tomorrow is a new day!

probably the best advice! just to pick up, get over it, get movin or do something different the next day!

DKBelle

just eat right again sometimes make some fruit shake/smoothie and drink that instead of breakfast/dinner.

DKBelle

ohhh here is my site in case you need some healthy cooking ideas. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cooking-ideasHomemade-Healthy-Foods/179121125503371

awdamm

ohhh here is my site in case you need some healthy cooking ideas. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cooking-ideasHomemade-Healthy-Foods/179121125503371

awesome thanks!

fatty_to_fitty

It's only one day. Log it, be honest about why you did it. Probably because you wanted it and it tasted good. No one is judging you.

Exercise and eat well the next day and try to make up for it.

Don't let it roll into a cheat week!

cryspetstalerson

I have been trying to eat and burn enough calories, so if this happens it doesn't effect me. I am still trying to get over my cravings, and for now, I am allowing myself ONE indulgence, every so often, ONLY if it is in my calorie budget for the day. If I want some thing sweet, I have to make sure I have burned enough calories to allow it.

paigemarie93

I had Pizza Hut last week & ate 800 calories over my limit, so the next day I just ate how I'd normally eat.
No use beating yourself up about it ;]

MrsLong1980

Acknowledge it and move on to be honest. Some people go down the "I have to make up for it by punishing myself" but it isn't the right way if you're making a life style change rather than just losing weight. You're always going to have 'bad' days, it's human. Tomorrow is another day and tomorrow you will do it right Of course if it's a regular thing you need to sit and analyse why, what happened that day or those days and work on that - the binge eating or 'bad' days are a symptom of something bigger in my opinion.

tasnim81

Forgive yourself and know that one day isn't going to make that much of a difference. Start over tomorrow!

GennyKert

I so agree with the "Tomorrow is a New day" posts. I find it also heaps to unload to someone (friend, partner, even this message board) as it makes me feel like a bit of the guilt has been lifted. Every single person has "bad" days, and they make the following good ones feel like even more of an accomplishment

dharakrat

This weekend has been horrible. I am up on the scale 10 lbs and the worst thing is I had ankle surgery 6 weeks ago and cannot workout strenuously still. So tomorrow I am going to do what my trainer always recommends and lower my carbs and stick to lean proteins. So frustrated with myself.

Rhia55

These days are going to happen. Sometimes you can't avoid it, especially around holidays. My thing is that I know if I don't have occasional "bad days" and I mean VERY occasional, I won't stick to this for life.

I am trying to keep my bad days to two per month, although it's not easy. I try to do extra workout time on days that I over indulge.

malloryh2o

Don't punish yourself! Get back on track tomorrow! I'm not sure what your limits are for the day, bit sometimes I go like, 300 over. So the next day I work out enough to burn about 200, and eat 100 calories less than I'm supposed to. Voila, 300 calorie deficit. Granted, I've only lost 4 pounds (in 2 weeks).

TheKSop

Unfortunately, I rebound poorly from bad days...it's more like a splat. Whatever food I binged on...if it's still nearby, I keep wanting to eat it since I have a taste for it again. I am going to take what you guys said and use it as an example, though. I already intended on working out, and I have dinner plans, but it's gonna be a very light veggie lunch.

The amount of calories consumed last night in a 4 hour period is staggering, though! Movie night at our place is a high risk time...every week! I have a friend who is a baker and bring over leftovers; all my friends bring junk food, and I have no willpower! Eek! Gorging on air-popped popcorn it will have to be.

msalperson

I had a day like that yesterday. I was a bit shocked about how "bad" I was, because it didn't happen until I got home from a full day out and then sat down and noshed... and noshed. Key to keeping on track, to me, is 1) Be honest. Don't lie when you enter your foods. I say that because I'm sometimes tempted not to log in everything, but that's worse, I think, than the actual overeating.
2) Adjust the next day's meals by subtracting at least one protein that will add more calories. I'm doing South Beach along with MFP, so I'm on a low-carb eating plan. I don't call it a diet. So yesterday I was "undone" by some amazing mac'n'cheese, which I hadn't had in MONTHS. I don't even usually eat it, so this "transgression" was temporary!

Liftng4Lis

Log it and move on.