How to deal with failure

How would you learn if you never mess up? I try to learn from my mishaps and find out how to prevent them from happening again so I don't keep repeating.

As for water consumption.... I like adding 1/2 a packet of Crystal Light to a gallon of water. It adds a little flavor but it is not over powering.

There are a lot of low and zero calorie mixes for drinks - Crystal Light would be one example. Go to the store and look on the shelf.

Swapping to diet soda will free up a lot of calories.

We have the same problem! I love cokes can't get enough of them I'm tryin to switch to diet Pepsi instead of coke! But I kno water is the best. And ur not a failure just keep trying don't let a slip up Bring u down keep workin at it u will lose the pounds:)

Ooh! Ooh! I like this question because I've turned those previous weak points into pretty good strengths now. Drinking enough water has always been a challenge for me but I have a few good tricks now that I do daily, and failures I believe can be used to make us stronger.


Crystal Light & diet soda are crap. Screw putting crappy chemicals into your body like that.

Do you like the carbonation that's in soda? I do. (I don't like soda thank god, but I love the refreshing carbonation.)
Crystal Geyser, Trader Joe's, and Arrowhead make awesome flavored carbonated water with no junky crap in it. My favorites are lemon, berry, or orange flavored. They come in 1-2 liters & they're only 99 cents. I get a few to keep at home & a mini 4 pack (usually $2) once a week to bring to work. Fvck yeah.

Something I started doing a few months ago that has really helped too:
Bought a 32oz water bottle. The night before I go to work I fill 1/3rd of it up with water, pour some lemon juice (or whatever flavor you want, I like lemon) and a bit of stevia in it (a natural sweetener w 0 cals & doesn't alter blood sugar) and stick it in the freezer on its side. The next morning I take it out & fill the rest of it up with the same stuff. It's like having delicious cold lemonade all day long at work with zero calories or guilt & if you finish you're already 1/2 way to your water goal for the day. Someday soon I hope to be bad *kitten* enough that I can do that with two 32oz bottles a day.

The 3rd/ last thing I do is drink tea - something caffeinated in the morning (I'm a fan of chocolate yerba mate or vanilla chai (which have less than 5 cals) and at night I drink Sleepytime tea (my favs are vanilla & Sleepytime extra) with a little bit of honey sometimes.

Also, once in awhile (say, once every couple weeks) I go over my caloric intake by a good 500 cals AT LEAST. It helps me stay on track the rest of the time. One meal is fine, one day is fine. If you forgive yourself (or even better - PLAN to do that!) it will help a bunch. Cheat days are popular for more than one reason you know haha

Hope those ideas help! They've worked really well for me!

low calorie drinks:

teas, coffee (be careful with added stuff like milk and sugar though, because the calories add up quickly)
diet soft drinks
some people liven up water by adding a little lemon juice or whatever, personally I'd rather drink plain water but if you like it then why not

one thing I do is I quench my thirst with water then drink calorie drinks slowly for the taste.... if you're really thirsty when you have drinks that contain calories then there's a higher likelihood that you'll drink a lot more of them and use up more of your calories.... also, water tastes crap after drinking sweet drinks... if water's the first thing you drink when thirsty then it tastes a lot better. And plus you're drinking it to quench your thirst. Then, when not thirsty, you can just relax and enjoy the taste of whatever other drink and it's a lot easier to stick to your planned amount of it.

Ugh, i hear you on the water. What is it about it that you don't like? I always thought I hated water, but it turns out that I just hate room-temp tap water. I have a water bottle with a filter in it and I keep it in my fridge. Voilà, suddenly the water isn't so bad.

Also, you didn't fail, you just learned a new way of not doing what you want to do. You know better now, next time you won't do the same thing.

When you say your "goal" is 1200 calories, do you mean that the baseline goal that MFP has set for you is 1200 calories? If you are getting any kind of exercise and are still trying to hit that baseline, then you are eating far too little. I am trying to lose 1.5 pounds/week and MFP has got my baseline set as 1250 calories. However, I generally get enough exercise to eat around 1500 calories/day and still lose. There are times I feel very full eating that number of calories, especially now that I'm eating more protein and fewer carbs (I have diabetes, so I needed to reduce my carbs, but I don't have a "low carb" diet). However, I do drink diet soda and water, so I can eat most of my calories. I do drink one glass of milk a day, with my nightly medication, but those are the only calories I drink.

Anyway, if you're not recording your exercise calories, make certain that you do so and eat back at least a portion of them. You'll feel better for it, especially if you cut out at least one sugary drink and replace it with food and get enough protein during the day.