What do you do realize you've totally blown it early on in the day?

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  • wonko221
    wonko221 Posts: 292 Member
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    i didn't gain all my excess weight in a meal, or a day, or a week. The road to health started when i realized that success is in building good habits.

    Good habits doesn't mean that i never indulge; it means that i generally eat well, and well enough that my occassional indulgences are perfectly fine.

    So if i find that i've already blown my calorie budget by lunch? I'll have a healthy dinner if and when i'm ready for it, go to bed, and get up to have a good day the next day.

    Seeing a "blown" day as free license to have an overly indulgent entire day means that i don't really have good habits. I'm using a mental trick to permit "bad" behavior. But if and when i mindfully choose to overindulge, there is no guilt, no tricks, and it is limited to the purpose (holiday, vacation, celebration, etc.) and i'm back on track once the treat is done.


    Be healthy, be well!
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    MelWick524 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Holidays are different. I've either made the decision to go over, stay in deficit, or eat at maintenance for the day.

    Otherwise, that does not happen to me. I pre-log, and even before I did that...no. I've always had enough calories for a good dinner.

    You never ever ever ever make mistakes? Damn. That's pretty impressive :smile:

    I mean...I have days when I CHOOSE to have a 700 calorie brunch or something (that's a lot for me)...but I actually don't understand how it would be done by mistake. Because I'm tracking what I eat...with this app.

    It doesn't happen to me often, but Easter morning, I just sat there mindlessly snacking and snacking and snacking. I lost control for a minute. I'm glad that never happens to you. I don't see many people that don't have setbacks. My brain works a lot differently than yours, though...I've recovered from both bulimia and binge eating disorder...but the brain never quite recovers I guess. Setbacks and mistakes happen for me. I just need to keep control and not let it spiral me down. Years ago, if I ate like that by noon, I would throw it up. If I didn't, I'd cry and and starve myself the rest of the day. I'm just trying to learn healthy, non-destructive habits.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    On a holiday like Easter I'd decide from the beginning that I'd have a higher calorie limit (or not log), so it wouldn't be an issue.

    On a regular day, I'd try to eat light the rest of the day but not skip meals. For example, if I was close to over before dinner I'd probably have just veggies and lean meat/lower calorie protein for dinner. I'd still try to get in my usual veggies and protein and eat enough so that I would not be hungry after dinner, but I'd focus more on lower calorie food and skip my usual starches or any higher calorie meats (assuming I had options at home) and of course any post dinner dessert I might otherwise have had.

    If I ended up going over some still I'd either not worry about it or maybe try to cut a little (but only a little) from subsequent days.

    I don't do the screw it thing, since it's not a matter of going over or not but the overall deficit for the week in my mind.

    However, on occasion I might decide after starting off badly that I didn't want to bother and would make it a maintenance day and then I'd feel free to eat more so long as I didn't go above maintenance. I've done that plenty lately (which is why I'm basically, well, maintaining).
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    MelWick524 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    MelWick524 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Holidays are different. I've either made the decision to go over, stay in deficit, or eat at maintenance for the day.

    Otherwise, that does not happen to me. I pre-log, and even before I did that...no. I've always had enough calories for a good dinner.

    You never ever ever ever make mistakes? Damn. That's pretty impressive :smile:

    I mean...I have days when I CHOOSE to have a 700 calorie brunch or something (that's a lot for me)...but I actually don't understand how it would be done by mistake. Because I'm tracking what I eat...with this app.

    It doesn't happen to me often, but Easter morning, I just sat there mindlessly snacking and snacking and snacking. I lost control for a minute. I'm glad that never happens to you. I don't see many people that don't have setbacks. My brain works a lot differently than yours, though...I've recovered from both bulimia and binge eating disorder...but the brain never quite recovers I guess. Setbacks and mistakes happen for me. I just need to keep control and not let it spiral me down. Years ago, if I ate like that by noon, I would throw it up. If I didn't, I'd cry and and starve myself the rest of the day. I'm just trying to learn healthy, non-destructive habits.
    MelWick524 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    MelWick524 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Holidays are different. I've either made the decision to go over, stay in deficit, or eat at maintenance for the day.

    Otherwise, that does not happen to me. I pre-log, and even before I did that...no. I've always had enough calories for a good dinner.

    You never ever ever ever make mistakes? Damn. That's pretty impressive :smile:

    I mean...I have days when I CHOOSE to have a 700 calorie brunch or something (that's a lot for me)...but I actually don't understand how it would be done by mistake. Because I'm tracking what I eat...with this app.

    It doesn't happen to me often, but Easter morning, I just sat there mindlessly snacking and snacking and snacking. I lost control for a minute. I'm glad that never happens to you. I don't see many people that don't have setbacks. My brain works a lot differently than yours, though...I've recovered from both bulimia and binge eating disorder...but the brain never quite recovers I guess. Setbacks and mistakes happen for me. I just need to keep control and not let it spiral me down. Years ago, if I ate like that by noon, I would throw it up. If I didn't, I'd cry and and starve myself the rest of the day. I'm just trying to learn healthy, non-destructive habits.

    Ah. Well I hope you are doing better now. It's not like I'm perfect and have never sat down to snacks on the holiday and ate hundreds of calories worth...I'm just saying it wasn't an accident. I'm aware of how many calories I'm putting in my mouth, just because I've used this app as a tool for so long. I hope it can be a healthy tool for you as well!
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    MelWick524 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Holidays are different. I've either made the decision to go over, stay in deficit, or eat at maintenance for the day.

    Otherwise, that does not happen to me. I pre-log, and even before I did that...no. I've always had enough calories for a good dinner.

    You never ever ever ever make mistakes? Damn. That's pretty impressive :smile:

    I mean...I have days when I CHOOSE to have a 700 calorie brunch or something (that's a lot for me)...but I actually don't understand how it would be done by mistake. Because I'm tracking what I eat...with this app.

    I'm a planner too. And a prelogger. So far, my plans included eating within my calorie limit on the holidays that have passed since I started losing weight. It just ended up that way, next year or the year after that might be different.

    Looking forward into the future, my plans include going on vacation in June and eating within my calorie limit except for one day where I will have a huge order of cheese fries from this place near our hotel and I will savor every morsel.

    Someone else's plans might be different. The idea is that no matter what you do, as long as you don't let whatever happens on one day throw you off track completely, it's all good.

    We have to all come to grips with the reality of family celebrations, holidays, social gatherings, etc. and figure out on our own the best way of dealing with them on an ongoing basis as part of not only losing weight, but maintaining that loss.

  • carolinehatcher
    carolinehatcher Posts: 1 Member
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    I always work out at night because I don't have time or the willpower to wake up at 5 am or earlier to work out. If I've gone over my calories during the day, I always make sure to work out for ask long as it takes to burn off all those extra calories and more! If you haven't already, I suggest using the ellipitical at your local gym. The ellipital is my favorite for those days that I'm not really feeling in the work out mood. It also burns SO MANY CALORIES! (Fat burning mode is the best!) Also, working out boosts your metabolism! I used to think that I had the worlds worst metabolism ever, but now that I've started working out, I've noticed a change! I usually burn 750 cal when I go to the gym and honestly, it's great! And I really can't stress to you how much it has boosted my metabolism. I can admit that for about 3 days now, I haven't been eating the best because I have all that half priced easter candy and other junk food laying around. And I've only gone to the gym once! But I HAVE NOT GAINED ANY WEIGHT since BEFORE Easter! How awesome is that?! And I truly believe it's because working out so regulary (I usually go 4 days a week or more) has boosted my metabolism to where it hasn't hurt me these past 4 days. I only worked out once in 4 days and I haven't eaten the best - yet I haven't gained any weight! I don't know about you, but that makes me want to work out even more!

    I knew that I was going to have to restrict on Easter or I would definitly go overboard! So, I skipped breakfast on Easter morning and just had a giant lunch which came out to being 920 calories. Then, I went to Krispy Kreme and I had two donuts. Which totaled a whopping 530 calories. My calorie intake for that day was 1,450. I am allowed 1,200 calories. Although that was 250 over, I was suprised that I didn't go any more than that. I didn't need to do damage control either because I hadn't completly blown it, you know?

    Anyways, good luck to you and your weight loss! I hope I've helped a little bit. Feel free to add me if you want!

    Caroline
  • pkarlys
    pkarlys Posts: 3 Member
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    I guess for me, it largely depends on why I've gone or will be going over. If it's because of stress, there usually isn't much I can do to get myself back on track... instead, I try to be good to myself emotionally the rest of the day to get me back on track the next day. If it's family/holiday related, I try to plan ahead, but if that fails, I kick up the next few days into high gear. If it's just poor planning on my part or unexpected events/gatherings, I give myself permission to go a little overboard with the understanding that I'll be hitting the gym bright and early the next day, so it'd be best to take it easy in the evening if I want to survive the mornings workout (that also usually helps me to curb that "oh, just one more cocktail..." mantra, lol!
  • hyIianprincess
    hyIianprincess Posts: 302 Member
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    Best thing to try and remember is one day isn't going to ruin all your hard work. Gotta forgive yourself and get right back on track. It can be hard though and most of the time since I figured I already went over calories, I might as well relax and enjoy myself. Figure Ill just work out harder during the week to make up for it. :flushed:
  • Ohwhynot
    Ohwhynot Posts: 356 Member
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    I own it, log it (ALL OF IT), and move on. :)
  • mommazach
    mommazach Posts: 384 Member
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    If I have blown my diet, I excercise more. If a 30 minute video off youtube works best, then I'll add it to other routines. I've done this myself, and don't feel good about doing it, but know if i don't track my calories, I'm bound to do it again.
  • slucki01
    slucki01 Posts: 284 Member
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    The first thing I do is log what I've eaten. Sometimes it's not as bad as you'd expect and it's good to know where you stand on macros. Then I just try to make better choices for the rest of the day and get some extra exercise. The next few days I'm extra diligent about what I eat and I don't eat any of my exercise calories.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I pre-log and plan meals ahead so rarely go over my calories unintentionally. I start with pre-logging dinner first, then lunch, breakfast and then snacks.
    If I did unintentionally go over I would look at how bad it was. Is it over my maintenance level? Could I exercise more that day? Could I eat a much lighter dinner or skip eating the rest of the day? (Obviously you have eaten enough calories to fuel you so it is just eating to be social or habit not real hunger.) Could I just log it, learn from it and move on making sure to not go over the rest of the week? Prepare myself not to see a loss that week possibly.
    In future, I would plan better so I saved more calories for dinner. Eat a lighter breakfast or lunch on special occasions if there is a big meal planned for dinner. Plan to eat lighter the day before or after to "save" some extra calories for the special occasion day.

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