What's my problem?
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I have fluctuated between a goal of 1200-1500. I usually end up closer to 1600 though.0
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I'm going to PF's tonight, what's this cal count thing you are talking about?0
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On weekends, start logging before you eat. Seeing the calories in that Big Mac ahead of time might help you make better choices.0
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It sounds to me like you are depriving yourself during the week which may be leading to over eating or unhealthy choices on the weekends. I think mentally you feel like your food intake during the week is a 'diet', which you don't want to be on during the weekend. I would suggest reading 'The Beck Diet Solution', I think it will have a lot of good suggestions to break you out of that mentality.
In the mean time, I would eat a little more during the week. Build in some 'cheats' or 'indulgences', that way when you get to the weekend you're not dying for all of the bad stuff, and it will be easier to say no to the McD's or choose something moderately healthy on the menu.
You said that you want to live a 'normal' life, which implies that you don't feel like you have it now. My suggestion would be to take a hard look at what you're doing and cut out the things you're not willing to do forever. Don't want to go to the gym four times a week? Then only go two times. Find some kind of fitness you actually enjoy, like maybe going for walks with your husband or pets. Hate eating oatmeal in the morning? Play around and find something that makes you feel good. Plan your how week out (including your weekend) and try very hard to stick to it. Then re-evaluate and see where you had trouble and those are the places that you need to spend some time problem-solving.
Good luck, and don't give up, you're worth it!0 -
Alright, I'm going to start with tonight's PF Chang's meal and try to log this weekend, just to get a grip on what I'm eating.0
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You CAN eat McDonald's or go out for dinner on the weekend, BUT you have to plan for it, log it, and adjust the rest of your daily intake (and extra calorie burns via exercise) around it accordingly. If you don't log all your food, it's very easy to avoid being accountable. If I know I'm going to have junk food, booze or take out, I log it first thing in the morning (I've got wine and cheesecake on the menu today, for example), then plan the rest of my day around it. I might end up going over a little, but it won't be a blowout because I'll have a plan in place to manage it. I also find that logging it helps keep the indulgence in check a little - because I really do like to eat - like all day long - and if one giant bunch of fried food at the end of the day is going to blow my daily goal, I'll probably scale it back a bit so I can still eat something else earlier in the day.
I get this, I honestly do. I've done it before. The problem lies in real life. You can't always plan it. So I'll be eating ok all day, and then something will happen at home, and we choose to go to McD's. This is actually a rarity, but it did happen this week. Today I do know I'm having PF Chang's tonight, so I'm trying to eat accordingly. I cook a lot at home, and that gets hard logging-wise. I made pizza last night, now I have to go use the recipe tool to figure out the cals!
The thing is, you CAN plan it, even in real life. If you're "choosing" to go to McD's you could have just as easily made a different choice. It's completely within your control. As for when you cook, I cook pretty much everything from scratch at home too. I plan my menus for the week and so can either figure out the recipe in advance with the recipe tool, or else I enter the ingredients as I prepare the food, so that I can adjust my serving size to fit my goals before I eat it. All these challenges you're presenting are really just opportunities to be more organized and mindful! It is totally achievable.0 -
I'm going to PF's tonight, what's this cal count thing you are talking about?
Here is the link to PF Changs Nutrition facts. http://www.pfchangs.com/menu/nutritionalinfo.aspx
Make sure to look at the servings per dish too because most of the calories are per serving, not dish.0 -
I want to lose 10 lbs!! I thought the pretzels were ok due to the calorie content. At least I counted them, so didn't go crazy on them. How about popcorn?
Any food is okay. You don't have to cut anything out entirely to lose weight. But consider, is there something else you could eat that would help you feel more satisfied and that would give you more nutrients? Pretzels are pretty much starch and sodium with little else. Add some cheese, and you have a snack with protein and a bit of fat, calcium, etc, which will help you feel satisfied longer. Feeling hungry isn't an indication of doing well on your diet. Popcorn is a bit better choice, as it has more fiber, but beware of all the butter flavor stuff - it's usually unhealthy fats and stuff. It's okay, just don't overdo it (I go for Act II Butter when I want microwave popcorn, it's not so loaded as Butter Lovers but tastes good)
The other thing I see as a possible culprit is that you are trying to cut back too far. Your diary says you get 1200 calories a day. As active as you are, I think that's too low. I'm 35 and 5'0" and I aim for 1600 calories a day (don't look at this week, I haven't logged anything. Needed a week off! :laugh: ). With only 20 lbs to lose, you can't expect to sustain more than 1 lb a week of loss; those who lose 2 lbs a week or more regularly are generally those who have a lot more to lose. Do you eat back your exercise calories? You should, at least some of them. Sometimes when you don't eat enough, your metabolism slows down and makes it harder for you to lose. It's not really "starvation mode" (I hate that term anyway), but it can happen on a small scale, which can derail efforts. The other thing is that, if you deprive yourself too much, you're more likely to blow it on the weekends. Like others said, budget within your daily allowance for a few indulgences a week, and you'll probably find that you can stick to it better on the weekend as well.0 -
If you have any competitive nature at all, set up a challenge/bet with a friend. It's a great motivator for me.0
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You CAN eat McDonald's or go out for dinner on the weekend, BUT you have to plan for it, log it, and adjust the rest of your daily intake (and extra calorie burns via exercise) around it accordingly. If you don't log all your food, it's very easy to avoid being accountable. If I know I'm going to have junk food, booze or take out, I log it first thing in the morning (I've got wine and cheesecake on the menu today, for example), then plan the rest of my day around it. I might end up going over a little, but it won't be a blowout because I'll have a plan in place to manage it. I also find that logging it helps keep the indulgence in check a little - because I really do like to eat - like all day long - and if one giant bunch of fried food at the end of the day is going to blow my daily goal, I'll probably scale it back a bit so I can still eat something else earlier in the day.
I get this, I honestly do. I've done it before. The problem lies in real life. You can't always plan it. So I'll be eating ok all day, and then something will happen at home, and we choose to go to McD's. This is actually a rarity, but it did happen this week. Today I do know I'm having PF Chang's tonight, so I'm trying to eat accordingly. I cook a lot at home, and that gets hard logging-wise. I made pizza last night, now I have to go use the recipe tool to figure out the cals!
The thing is, you CAN plan it, even in real life. If you're "choosing" to go to McD's you could have just as easily made a different choice. It's completely within your control. As for when you cook, I cook pretty much everything from scratch at home too. I plan my menus for the week and so can either figure out the recipe in advance with the recipe tool, or else I enter the ingredients as I prepare the food, so that I can adjust my serving size to fit my goals before I eat it. All these challenges you're presenting are really just opportunities to be more organized and mindful! It is totally achievable.
I do the same with weekly meals. I'm sorry, what I mean by not being able to plan life, is saying, ok, I'm going to have McD's tonight, so I'll eat accordingly today. I ate good in the day, but then blew it at McD's at night, unexpectedly. I will say that I could have also chosen to eat better at McD's. That part, I just don't have will power over. I suck at it.0 -
I'm going to PF's tonight, what's this cal count thing you are talking about?
Here is the link to PF Changs Nutrition facts. http://www.pfchangs.com/menu/nutritionalinfo.aspx
Make sure to look at the servings per dish too because most of the calories are per serving, not dish.
OK, but you were talking about servings for two people, etc.? My husband and I always share a dish, and then he gets the combo rice. Thankfully, I'm not a big rice eater so don't usually eat a lot of that.0 -
You don't want to completely omit carbs from your diet... Complex carbs, when eaten in proportion to your exercise demands, are an important part of your daily macros. Instead of eating oatmeal every single morning, try mixing it up... I know quite a few people who aren't interested in breakfast per say, but unfortunately, you've got to adjust your way of thinking and force yourself to eat something. Breakfast is the most important meal of your day, giving your body the energy it needs to start your day right.
I would suggest Quest protein bars, comes in a variety of flavors, egg whites on a toasted English muffin, turkey bacon, etc.
check out a site called skinnytaste.com and www.eatingwelllivingthin.com - They have great recipes for breakfast casseroles, and lunch options to make over the weekends so you have healthy meals throughout the week. I always do this so I'm not tempted to eat something quick, I can just grab it out of the fridge, warm it up, and done!!
It sounds like your exercise routine is solid. Are you adding any cardio exercises, or high intensity interval training? HIIT will help you lose weight really fast!!! Google search it, and you can find quite a few great resources for intense cardio exercises. ;-)0 -
I want to lose 10 lbs!! I thought the pretzels were ok due to the calorie content. At least I counted them, so didn't go crazy on them. How about popcorn?
Any food is okay. You don't have to cut anything out entirely to lose weight. But consider, is there something else you could eat that would help you feel more satisfied and that would give you more nutrients? Pretzels are pretty much starch and sodium with little else. Add some cheese, and you have a snack with protein and a bit of fat, calcium, etc, which will help you feel satisfied longer. Feeling hungry isn't an indication of doing well on your diet. Popcorn is a bit better choice, as it has more fiber, but beware of all the butter flavor stuff - it's usually unhealthy fats and stuff. It's okay, just don't overdo it (I go for Act II Butter when I want microwave popcorn, it's not so loaded as Butter Lovers but tastes good)
The other thing I see as a possible culprit is that you are trying to cut back too far. Your diary says you get 1200 calories a day. As active as you are, I think that's too low. I'm 35 and 5'0" and I aim for 1600 calories a day (don't look at this week, I haven't logged anything. Needed a week off! :laugh: ). With only 20 lbs to lose, you can't expect to sustain more than 1 lb a week of loss; those who lose 2 lbs a week or more regularly are generally those who have a lot more to lose. Do you eat back your exercise calories? You should, at least some of them. Sometimes when you don't eat enough, your metabolism slows down and makes it harder for you to lose. It's not really "starvation mode" (I hate that term anyway), but it can happen on a small scale, which can derail efforts. The other thing is that, if you deprive yourself too much, you're more likely to blow it on the weekends. Like others said, budget within your daily allowance for a few indulgences a week, and you'll probably find that you can stick to it better on the weekend as well.
Yeah, I'm not sure where the 1200 cals came from but that is crazy low. Eating back my cals - as in eating the -net cals I see on my diary? Like break even?0 -
Just a warning, Culvers food is as high, if not higher in calories than McDonald's. go online, read the nutrition info before you go to plan what you are having. We had McDonald's last night, I had the Southwest salad with grilled chicken and part of a burger. For less than 600 calories.
I have a hard time reigning in my eating on my days off as well, just decide what you want more. Marie Callender's, PF Changs and McDonald's, or for those capris to be too big.0 -
If you don't have the willpower to make better choices at McDonald's, don't eat there. Problem solved.0
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You don't want to completely omit carbs from your diet... Complex carbs, when eaten in proportion to your exercise demands, are an important part of your daily macros. Instead of eating oatmeal every single morning, try mixing it up... I know quite a few people who aren't interested in breakfast per say, but unfortunately, you've got to adjust your way of thinking and force yourself to eat something. Breakfast is the most important meal of your day, giving your body the energy it needs to start your day right.
I would suggest Quest protein bars, comes in a variety of flavors, egg whites on a toasted English muffin, turkey bacon, etc.
check out a site called skinnytaste.com and www.eatingwelllivingthin.com - They have great recipes for breakfast casseroles, and lunch options to make over the weekends so you have healthy meals throughout the week. I always do this so I'm not tempted to eat something quick, I can just grab it out of the fridge, warm it up, and done!!
It sounds like your exercise routine is solid. Are you adding any cardio exercises, or high intensity interval training? HIIT will help you lose weight really fast!!! Google search it, and you can find quite a few great resources for intense cardio exercises. ;-)
Thanks for those sites! I can do egg whites on toasted English muffin - those don't seem to travel too well though, and with my workouts at night, it's very hard to prepare meals for the next day. I think I've got lunch down, but breakfast is hard. I remember making these egg cups in South Beach diet, maybe I could do something like that.
I love my exercise. I'm sore a lot, good sore. The classes I go to give a good strong balance of cardio and strength training. I believe this is why I do feel so great. At first I could only do one pushup, now I'm up to 10! Sometimes they do HIIT. Trust me, these classes are legit! (LifeTimeFitness)0 -
First off, I am not a nutritional expert by any means. However, I have lost 20 pounds (in a 2 ½ month time-frame) without exercise and without starving myself. I am now exercising some, but only because of the motivation I have found from losing weight from changing my eating habits.
I highly suggest you read this book: “The Raw Food Detox Diet” by Natalia Rose. Though I am not suggesting you need an exclusively raw diet, I think you’ll find applying some (it DOES NOT have to be all ) of her principles regarding food combining will help you get the ball rolling.
Though I suggest you read the book (plus it has some great recipes in it), here’s how I have applied some of her tips to my typical “food routine”:
-Eat light to heavy. Your lightest meal should be breakfast. I know this is probably the opposite of what you have heard from many, but this has truly worked for me. If you read her book, she’ll go into more detail about why she suggests eating light to heavy.
-Skip the carbs and the protein in the morning. Drink fresh-squeezed juice (especially with some green veggies in it) and eat fresh fruit for breakfast. This will supply you with an amazing amount of vitamins, nutrients and energy. After you’ve had your juice (don’t drink it until you’re actually hungry, no matter how late in the morning it is) and given it some time to digest (15-30 minutes), you can eat fresh fruit.
-Eat raw veggies, raw salads, raw soups etc. for lunch. Make homemade raw dressings (they are SO tasty, especially Rose’s Gold Elixir Dressing). Don’t use the bottled stuff (it’s full of processed junk that is difficult to digest) and try to skip on the cheese if possible. Don’t load your food down with unhealthy toppings like bacon, croutons and those types of items. If you need to, incorporate raw nuts, dried fruits etc. with lunch or as a snack later in the day.
-Save your cooked meals for dinner. Eat fresh, vegetarian foods as much as you can. That being said, if you want meat, eat good quality meat and eat it at dinner! Eat it with lots of fresh veggies, and kick off your meal with a raw salad when you can.
-Try to avoid combining the following food groups as much as possible: meat, dairy, starch and fruit. When combined, these food groups can inhibit digestion. It will take longer to digest your food, and your meals with start piling up on top of one another if you continue to combine these categories, especially every meal.
A few personal tips:
-Eat because you’re hungry. Not out of habit. If you are not hungry, don’t eat just because you are used to eating at a certain time.
-Don’t deprive yourself. When you go to the store, if some type of fresh produce looks and sounds yummy, buy it! Just because you are eating smarter doesn’t mean you have to eat stuff you don’t like. That will just turn you off and send you running back to your old food habits.
-Don’t beat yourself up too much when you have a cheat meal. We are human. We have certain cravings, and we sometimes give into them. Just try not to make it too frequent, and try to eat well the rest of the day and the day/s after.
-Avoid processed foods as much as physically possible. If you eat something pre-packaged, read all of the ingredients. If you can’t pronounce one of them, chances are it is something your body can’t digest.
I still occasionally indulge in meat, pizza, rich desserts etc. But it’s far less than before. And I do not feel deprived. I’m eating nutritious, flavorful food, and I couldn’t be happier about how I look and feel. Almost every “bad” food choice has a more natural and/or flavorful counterpart.
Best of luck to you in your journey!0 -
Thank you asciar1!!!!0
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Hmm, I'll have to check Culver's menu. I just thought that they offered far more in the way of choices. BTW, my problem is that if I walk into a McD's, no way am I ordering a salad. I did get a diet coke.0
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Hmm, I'll have to check Culver's menu. I just thought that they offered far more in the way of choices. BTW, my problem is that if I walk into a McD's, no way am I ordering a salad. I did get a diet coke.
I saw that you mentioned you are an alcoholic, are you a recovering alcoholic? Just wondering if you were drinking your calories. My fitness/workout buddy hasn't been doing as well but she is much younger and partying on the weekends and doesn't log her alcoholic drinks, which really is probably putting her into a surplus in those 2 days even though she may be a deficit the rest of the week. Alot of people dont log their drinks0 -
Hmm, I'll have to check Culver's menu. I just thought that they offered far more in the way of choices. BTW, my problem is that if I walk into a McD's, no way am I ordering a salad. I did get a diet coke.
I saw that you mentioned you are an alcoholic, are you a recovering alcoholic? Just wondering if you were drinking your calories. My fitness/workout buddy hasn't been doing as well but she is much younger and partying on the weekends and doesn't log her alcoholic drinks, which really is probably putting her into a surplus in those 2 days even though she may be a deficit the rest of the week. Alot of people dont log their drinks
Yes, I'm recovering - if I was active then I'd see where my calories are going! LOL. I'm 15 months sober. Part of why I am now trying to lose weight is I gained when I quit drinking. The withdrawal of alcohol from ones body makes them crave sugar. You can imagine. There was no way for me to log my drinks. Like I said, I'm an alcohlic. There isn't enough booze in the world for me.0 -
I don't think what's going on during the week is your problem. I think the weekends are the problem, and your disconnect between eating to lose weight and "being normal" (a.k.a. going out for dinner etc) this is not meant to sound judgy because I have struggled with the same problem, doing well during the week, blowing it on weekends, and I can tell you how I got off the rollercoaster but you may not be ready to go there:
I had to up my calories to a point where I could have some of the things I loved and not feel so deprived. This meant slowing down weightloss. But it also meant that I finally feel like I have absolute control, I no longer binge or splurge or los it, I know I can go out for dinner and make a reasonable choice, and bake cookies at home with the kids and have one cookie (yes one cookie!!!) and be okay with that because I am not so deprived that I see myself as "on" or "off". Did it slow down weightloss? Yup. but I have a level of energy and sanity that is unprecedented in my life.
Just something to think about, are you trying to be so perfect and restrained that you are setting yourself up to "fall off the wagon"?
Good luck, I hope you find what works for you.0 -
Hmm, I'll have to check Culver's menu. I just thought that they offered far more in the way of choices. BTW, my problem is that if I walk into a McD's, no way am I ordering a salad. I did get a diet coke.
I saw that you mentioned you are an alcoholic, are you a recovering alcoholic? Just wondering if you were drinking your calories. My fitness/workout buddy hasn't been doing as well but she is much younger and partying on the weekends and doesn't log her alcoholic drinks, which really is probably putting her into a surplus in those 2 days even though she may be a deficit the rest of the week. Alot of people dont log their drinks
Yes, I'm recovering - if I was active then I'd see where my calories are going! LOL. I'm 15 months sober. Part of why I am now trying to lose weight is I gained when I quit drinking. The withdrawal of alcohol from ones body makes them crave sugar. You can imagine. There was no way for me to log my drinks. Like I said, I'm an alcohlic. There isn't enough booze in the world for me.
good luck to you with the recovery and the weight loss. You are a strong woman. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:0 -
P.S. congrats on your sobriety! That shows you have amazing powers of self-control and self-awareness! If you are gong to AA, do some thinking around how your behaviours with food do or don't resemble your former behaviours with alcohol. Recovery should give you some skills and tips that would help with any kind of behaviour where you surrender your power to a substance - (aka alcohol or food) did you trade one addictive behavior for another? If I am way off tell me so!
The good news is, lol you can get addicted to fitness :devil:0 -
I don't think what's going on during the week is your problem. I think the weekends are the problem, and your disconnect between eating to lose weight and "being normal" (a.k.a. going out for dinner etc) this is not meant to sound judgy because I have struggled with the same problem, doing well during the week, blowing it on weekends, and I can tell you how I got off the rollercoaster but you may not be ready to go there:
I had to up my calories to a point where I could have some of the things I loved and not feel so deprived. This meant slowing down weightloss. But it also meant that I finally feel like I have absolute control, I no longer binge or splurge or los it, I know I can go out for dinner and make a reasonable choice, and bake cookies at home with the kids and have one cookie (yes one cookie!!!) and be okay with that because I am not so deprived that I see myself as "on" or "off". Did it slow down weightloss? Yup. but I have a level of energy and sanity that is unprecedented in my life.
Just something to think about, are you trying to be so perfect and restrained that you are setting yourself up to "fall off the wagon"?
Good luck, I hope you find what works for you.
Hmm, not sure. But thanks so much for sharing your experience, it helps me greatly.0 -
good luck to you with the recovery and the weight loss. You are a strong woman. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!0 -
P.S. congrats on your sobriety! That shows you have amazing powers of self-control and self-awareness! If you are gong to AA, do some thinking around how your behaviours with food do or don't resemble your former behaviours with alcohol. Recovery should give you some skills and tips that would help with any kind of behaviour where you surrender your power to a substance - (aka alcohol or food) did you trade one addictive behavior for another? If I am way off tell me so!
The good news is, lol you can get addicted to fitness :devil:
LOL, thanks! I hesitated on mentioning it, but then realized it might help some of you see where I am coming from. I'm not sure if I traded one for another. I think I did early on. I went bananas with sweets, and coffee. Now, I have reigned a lot of that in. Just one cup of coffee. The sweets, I love. I'm slowly curbing that too. Buying the Marie Callendar's pie sure did me in. It's sitting in the fridge every time I open it, looking at me! It's gone now, thank god.
Nope, no addiction to exercise for me!
Thank you for the thoughts.0 -
P.S. congrats on your sobriety! That shows you have amazing powers of self-control and self-awareness! If you are gong to AA, do some thinking around how your behaviours with food do or don't resemble your former behaviours with alcohol. Recovery should give you some skills and tips that would help with any kind of behaviour where you surrender your power to a substance - (aka alcohol or food) did you trade one addictive behavior for another? If I am way off tell me so!
The good news is, lol you can get addicted to fitness :devil:
LOL, thanks! I hesitated on mentioning it, but then realized it might help some of you see where I am coming from. I'm not sure if I traded one for another. I think I did early on. I went bananas with sweets, and coffee. Now, I have reigned a lot of that in. Just one cup of coffee. The sweets, I love. I'm slowly curbing that too. Buying the Marie Callendar's pie sure did me in. It's sitting in the fridge every time I open it, looking at me! It's gone now, thank god.
Nope, no addiction to exercise for me!
Thank you for the thoughts.
Listen, I quit smoking ten years ago and started a 6pack a day diet coke problem, we all do what we have to do lol! I think it's good you mentioned it, none of us can get to where we want to go without honest, and I am impressed with your for conquering it! Now as for that darn pie...listen, it is going to end up in your mouth. throw it away, or if you don't want to waste it, wrap it up well and stick it way in the back of the freezer. You will forget it's there. Stop "visiting it just to say hi" lmao!0 -
OK, I can do that. I haven't logged my food for quite some time. At this point, I am making not just guesses on measuring food, but educated guesses. As I said, I spent at least half a year diligently measuring my food, and I know understand what it weighs/measures.
I think what I'm really getting at is how to stick with it. How to stay motivated and not cave in and eat McD's. How to live normally. My husband and I go out every Friday. Tonight it's PF Chang's. I understand that if I eat McD's, I will not lose. I can work on avoiding that, but I also can't spend every day on my diet and not living a regular life with my husband (i.e. eating out).
I agree with this --- you do need to have a normal life, and sometimes that will involve eating out. I eat out with my family at least once a week, and I have been okay. What I do, especially if we are going to a chain restaurant, is pull up the menus and nutritional information before I go and budget out what I am going to have to eat so that I can stay within my daily calorie goal. If it's within my goal, I eat it; if it's not, I don't. On the days we eat out, I try to either eat especially low calorie but filling foods the rest of the day or exercise so that I have some extra calories to work with. Then once I've decided what I'm going to have, I order it and eat it without any guilt at all. It does take some willpower to do this -- but if I already know in advance what I'm going to eat, I don't even look at the menu to get tempted by something else. I just order it. And I budget in things like breadsticks at Olive Garden, or some chips at a Mexican restaurant, within my calorie goal.
For me, this whole process will not work if I can't continue to eat out, or can't continue to eat the things that I like to eat. Trying to cut out those things has been a recipe for failure for me in the past. However, I've found that I can eat smaller portions of the things I like (order a small order of fries rather than a large, for example, after budgeting for it) and keep within my overall calorie goals. That has worked for me. And I actually like it --- because everytime I eat, I know I've budgeted for it within my calorie goals, and therefore I don't have to feel guilty about it. In the past, I would feel bad every time we ate out because I thought I was eating too much (and most often I was). That feeling is gone.
One caveat to this --- I have a lot more weight to lose than you do, so it may be that it's easier for me to do this because I have more calories allotted --- but I thought I'd throw it out there in case it helps. Good luck to you.0 -
I also like to relax on the weekends. I don't tend to track then, either. "relaxing" sometimes includes alcohol, sometimes includes fast food, sometimes includes home-cooked "comfort" foods, etc. I am sure I will re-evaluate this strategy once my weight loss slows/stops. I can think of a few things you can try, individually or in combination, which could help you compromise between wanting to lose and "living normally". Keep in mind first thing tho, that "normal" in America usually leads to people being overweight/obese. We are all resisting the cultural urge to eat out too much and take in excess calories. I can promise you that the skinny women you see in McD's commercials almost never eat the stuff themselves... No Judging!
Anyway, here are things to try:
1. Continue to eat out at restaurants on weekends here and there, but go back to carefully measuring/tracking your food M-F. I know you are a pro at it, but if you've not been measuring for some time, you are likely experiencing "portion creep". That perfectly eyeballed cup of rice 6 months ago might be 1.2 cups now. it's easy to block out a treat here and there and not really take it into account. getting a handle during the week may help you go back to losing without sacrificing your weekend fun.
2. Do strategy 1, and also shave 50-100 cals off each day's allotment (or else exercise and don't eat back 50-100 cals. This way, you're "banking" calories you can use during the weekend.
3. Time your exercise to use your heavy weekend meals as "fuel". if you're going to McD's, have an intense workout which includes lifting heavy weights before. you may take in excess calories, but your calories may be put to better use repairing/building muscle.
4. Cut your weekend in half. if you were living it up all weekend, save the treats for either Saturday or Sunday. OR, just dinner on each day. Eventually, I plan to cut back my weekends to just one "do whatever I want" meal.
5. Research your choices at restaurants, and shave a few hundred painless calories from your meals. a classic one for me was to order sandwiches without the bun at macdonald's. it shaves 150 calories off the burger, and the mcd's near my place wraps the burger in a ton of lettuce, so it's still hand-friendly. now, instead of a value meal, i'll make butternut squash fries at home, and pop out for my "burger" right before i eat. i probably save 400+ calories off the actual value menu, and i get to eat the same volume of food. A little legwork/creativity can really change how damaging these meals are. At PF Changs, you could try ordering a side of veggies, and having that instead of the rice (enjoy the rest of your meal). you can also talk to the server, and ask if the chef could use less oil or otherwise lighten the dish. (Culver's butters the burger buns, for example. 50-100 cals gone if you skip that)
6. since you already mentioned sugar cravings, you would probably also be successful trimming starchy carbs/sugars from your eating as a way to "afford" your restaurant food. if I limit the bread/potato/pasta/sweets I take in (not low carb, just avoiding the stuff that wrecks your blood sugar), I have more willpower and resolve to make good choices. it also makes those treats on the weekends feel genuinely "special".
You do deserve a treat here and there, but you can't have treats (plural) all weekend AND not track during the week AND expect to lose weight. there's no "best" way to budget for your treats, you just need to one way or another (i'd suggest whichever one feels most natural).0
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