I keep falling off the wagon after doing so well :(

I think it's just really hard for me not to use food to self medicate my feelings of stress, loneliness, etc.

What is your average daily caloric intake (ignoring the pancakes)

I aim for 1500-1800

That is pretty low. You can 'afford' a pancake day to be honest. Plan it, log it, and look at your caloric intake for the week and weight loss results over a few weeks.

Or alternatively, do not restrict yourself so much and you may be less likely to feel out of control.

Have a read of this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Please do give this a read. I am a 5'2", 40 year old woman and aim for 1700/day. I'm not doing to bad either for two months in!

You don't have to give up the pancakes, and it doesn't have to stall your loss.

Plan for it once a week, this way you won't feel deprived and will make it much easier to continue. So even if your favorite pancake meal is 1500 calories - workout the day you have them, eat those and something else smaller later in the day and you can still maintain a small deficit.

Now if you are eating just because of stress, then to find a new activity for relief. Biking long distances and lifting work great for me when I need to get rid of some stress, or I hit the punching bag for awhile

This makes a lot of sense. Not sure my willpower is there yet but it is something to aim for.

Until I saw a therapist to deal with my emotional eating, I was not making any real progress. But now I have techniques to address my emotional eating and to moderate when I do want and make a conscious choice to have something that is not part of my regular intake, such as a pancake. I encourage you to see a therapist that has experience specifically in emotional eating and eating issues and really do some solid work with them. I have been seeing my person for nearly a year and expect to see them all of this coming year as well.
Good luck--and remember, when you do fall off the wagon, you need to get RIGHT BACK ON IT!

I am really struggling to maintain compliance with the amount of calories I am supposed to be eating. I will do great for 4-7 days, but then get horrible cravings to overeat. There is a diner place right by my work that has great pancakes. They are my weakness. I never want to go there again but it's hard. The craving is really strong, and it's right by my work.

I did this today after a number of perfect days. Today was particularly stressful at work and I know this is why I ended up going to the diner. I wanted those pancakes for comfort from stress.

That can be called ' cheat ' days. Your body is craving carbs if you like the pancakes.

If you are eating -500/day for 6 days, then binge eating 2kcal + above your maintenance on the 7th, that's still a loss of 1kcal/week.

In a month, that's over a pound of fat loss.



I eat decently clean for about 10 days then I eat literally wtv I want every 10-12 days. Ends up being about 5-6kcal.

Would I lose more weight if I can stick to my clean eating for longer periods of time? Yes, most likely; however, I want to live a little, drink a little. I don't want to be a fitness fanatic for no reason when I'm not competing and my only goal is to look and feel good about myself.

If I want I'll go binge for an entire week and drink alcohol or wtv, then I'll take the next 2 weeks to get back on track and watch what I eat.

If I go out heavy drinking once a week on the weekend and eat junk food the next day all day(from hangover), I'll make sure my workouts and diets the rest of the week is clean.

If you are like me and can't eat junk food in moderation, do what I do and eat what you want every once in a while.

if you can moderate small amounts of food you want in regular every day life, then do that;

Don't feel guilty about it.

Your calorie intake is not that high on most days, so as others have said, that could be causing the splurge. You have 2 options IMO: 1. up your daily calories & avoid the pancakes or 2. Leave your calories the same and eat, log, and enjoy the pancakes.
If you're still at your calorie goal for the week and maintaining or losing weight, but you're beating yourself up over the pancakes and not truly enjoying them, that's a crying shame.

If I know I am going to over eat, or if I have a stressful day at work and indulge in my favorite food ( which happens to be pizza ) I count all the calories and then bust my *kitten* even harder when I work out. This way I take accountability for the food I ate and feel proud that I worked them off. If I eat clean my normal workout is hard but not brutal, if I eat like crap, then my workout is brutal.

To address the loneliness you mentioned: why not get involved at the gym or a fitness class? I did a TRX class that was a 50/50 mix of men and women. I would do it every Monday and Wed night and started to meet people that way. It was nice to walk into the class and have small talk etc.

Maybe getting more connected to people will help your loneliness? If not fitness, maybe a class for a hobby you have? Get yourself out there....

Good luck!

Don't be too hard on yourself! Everyone makes mistakes! A splurge every once in a while won't kill your diet, just hit it hard in the gym after

Tomorrow is a new day!

Maybe you can chug a water before you go in and order a half stack? Chugging a water really helps me to not over eat!

Orrrrr... Maybe you can go in and make a huge scene, so you'll get thrown out and won't be allowed back in jk!

Well best of luck!

You should add me on here! I love the motivation and accountability and feel free to msg me when the pancake cravings come
Also -- last thing I PROMISE-- cravings generally last 5 minutes! Maybe call a friend, email, Facebook, just distract your self and it will pass... "This too shall pass"