Already blew today why not eat.....

Well, technically you hand't blown today *yet*. You just decided to give up early, knowing your dinner would put you over. I can relate, I just had a crazy 2 weeks of birthday celebrations and fancy dinners. I also gave up early and didn't bother to log as I didn't really want to know the truth. I'd say best thing to do is shrug it off and keep logging. If you really can't face the numbers today, keep logging tomorrow and the day after that. One splurge day didn't get you 300+ pounds so don't panic you'll go back there. As long as you treat it like it was - a one off.

When I know it is a special occasion, and want to splurge on a special meal, I try to realize that having special occasion meals was not what ultimately led to my weight gain- it was all of those days in between. That keeps me from wanting to snack and have the mentality that "I blew it anyways"

Another tactic I take, that is somewhat related as well- I only get to see my parents about once a year, due to living far away. When I get to be around them, I do not want to deny myself my favorite Polish foods that they make, and want to have some cocktails. So, their last visit, they were coming to visit for 3 days. With that in mind, knowing that this is a once a year thing, and not wanting to spend the entire time feeling guilty, I sat down ahead of time and was honest with myself about how much the indulgence was worth to me. I decided that visit would be worth a one pound weight gain to me- that setback would be easy enough for me to lose with some extra exercise. So I divided 3500 by 3 days, and knew that I could go over my maintenance by roughing 1150 calories per day, or any combination, and still only have a one lb set back. This kept me from completely throwing my goals out the window and just having a "free for all" 3 days of gorging.

Long story short, I gained that one pound, it was worth it to me, did extra exercise the following week and was especially watchful of my eating, that lb can right back off. For me, it is about trade-offs. There are certain occasions where I refuse to completely deprive myself of the things I want, I would be miserable! So I try to reign in my approach on those days by thinking about what the trade off is. Going to a big barbeque? Tradeoffs. Do I want to drink one more beer and have to put in a much harder workout? Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it's no. Would I rather eat that hot dog that doesn't look too appetizing, and have to eat a much smaller dinner this evening? Maybe not.

Sorry for the novel!

one meal that puts you over will not break you...its one meal...one day of going over your calorie limit....its not a big deal....just deal with it and move on to the next day.....

I use to be the same way I thought the same thing. But then my meal would move to my day then I would have an entire bad week and before I know it I will have gained all my weight back.

About a month ago I ordered a regular pizza at solo's which is listed as two servings. I intended on eating half and then the next day eating the other half. I ate the whole pizza and I was made at myself, since this was dinner the next day I made myself eat right and get a good workout in. That week I lost 4 lbs! It was proof if I didn't let one slip up turn into multiple slip-ups that it was ok.

So I suggest try really hard to get back on track forget about what you ate and continue with a healthy lifestyle. You may find too that you have a great loss this week despite a bad choice.

Just gonna add my tuppence worth - I keep logging. Even when things have been really bad, I will log back in and put in everything, good bad and ugly. For me, it has helped see just how much I am packing away when I do that (gulp!) but it has also helped me pinpoint the sorta stuff I tend to choose to binge on too. It doesn't make for easy, or very pretty, reading - but I have found it helps me to go back and look over those days when I'm feeling like I should just write off a day.

I still have days where I feel like that and hey, we all do at times - but I'm not as hard on myself as I once was and I have found that on a 'bad' day I know make better or rather, more considered choices. Possibly still going 'over budget', but not completely blowing it out of the water like I may once have done!

At the end of the day, one day won't hurt in the long run - but finding yourself getting sucked back into that mindset so that one day becomes a week, then a month....you want to keep in control so you can have an 'off' day then just get right back in the groove the next day.

If I know that I am going to go out to eat, I plan what I will order. Log it as early as I can. And either eat to fit it in, or fit in exercise to increase my macros.

It's also important for me to look at the big picture. Even if you went over today by a few hundred.... chances are you've been under goal the rest of the week... if you are at a 500 calorie (1 pound/ week loss) deficit every day... that's 3,500 calories under what you need to eat to maintain your weight. (Meaning, if you eat under that, you will lose weight) Add to that every day that you were under goal... you may have an extra 200-300 or calories to work with. So going over by a meal 1 day of the week isn't going to derail your success.

Throwing all caution to the wind and eating over count every meal of the day, however, decreases the deficit by even more.

You'll probably still end up in a deficit, so try not to sweat it... just remember to look at the big picture and don't let one meal ruin your whole day... or one day ruin your whole week... etc.

I'll be honest with you, I'd just enjoy having a day of indulgence. And then go for a nice, hard run tomorrow. One day will not cause you to lose progress. And if you're strict with yourself all the time, you'll be more likely to give in to temptation, IMO.

When I'm constantly policing myself and restricting what I can have, I find myself craving those things. But if I tell myself I can eat as many cupcakes as I want, I'll usually just have one... the novelty is gone when it's allowed! I don't worry about it, and therefore I don't need to log every calorie to make sure I'm under. I just go with the flow. Nice, clean meals today? Awesome. Cake and ice cream tomorrow? No problem. Still losing weight, still making strength and endurance gains.

Do what feels good. There's no sense in being miserable.

Whenever I go on vacation or have a big family gathering (like Thanksgiving) coming up, I set my calories to maintenance. That way, I don't go crazy with food, but I'm not stressing about every little treat either when I'm supposed to be having a happy birthday or a romantic vacation.

You have to find a happy medium. If you eat a little bit more one weekend, it's not going to set you back as long as you take control again when you get home. I've never gained weight by doing this, especially if we do a lot of walking while on our trip.

When we got back from our recent vacation, I ate mostly veggies and fruit for two days to sort of cleanse myself and get back on-track. You could make it a point to do the same right after your Fourth of July party. Pre-logging helps a lot too.

Now, if you're a sugar person (I'm not), I understand that sugar can lead to cravings and start a vicious cycle. I find that there are things to sort of curb that. My friend loves Crystal Light because it tastes really sweet (depending on the flavor) and makes her feel like she's having a sugary snack. Yeah, sure, chemicals blah blah blah blah blah, but it's better than snarfing down a bunch of candy and soda.

Every bite matters, every time. It's important to make it a good choice. There is no blowing it. Food is not a reward. Food should never be considered a reward. Remove that from your brain. You are eating sugar right now, so you need to balance it out. Make your dinner out protein. Your body is freaking out and actually having a negative response to what your doing to it by eating the sugar. A long time ago you were tricked into thinking that it was a positive so your brain says to hell with it and you give in. Its the secret failure switch of will power. .

Great perspective by mrsriisky