Guilty feelings

LaceyRuth wrote: »

Red numbers every once in a great while will not erase all of your progress. It's great that you've kind of conditioned yourself to want to stay under your deficit- but they're just number! Those numbers don't know anything about your mental or emotional health, so ignore them every once in a while and enjoy a day off.
You can always balance it out later in the week

Agree with the above!! Sometimes you just need a day to slack off and have a treat or eat a little extra of something. We all have those days! (Mine was yesterday, froyo ) Dont feel guilty! As long as you still have a goal and are moving towards it, you are on the right track

*Absolutely* log it. You will thank yourself later.

Feeling guilt when you go over is pretty normal, especially at first, or if it's been happening a bit regularly. The answer is NOT: "do it anyway, but bury your head in the sand and not log it." The answer is to work on your guilt.

People who maintain a desirable weight eat junk food sometimes. They eat extra sometimes. They spend the day doing nothing sometimes. It's what you *usually* do that will have the biggest impact on you.

So work on your perspective, until it has really sunk in what all of this means and how it works, so that you can live your life, work toward your goals, be successful, and not be binging/hiding things/wracked with guilt/afraid of food/etc.

And on a side note: If you can't make the "whole day off" thing work for you, try a different approach, or a different perspective. Did you come in UNDER target this week? Did you exercise and not eat all of the calories back? Then you effectively "saved" some for today. (Meaning if you go over by 500 today, but you were under by 100 at least 5 times this week, then you're not over at all. It's just going to look red today because MFP doesn't have the flexibility to carry over. Your body does though.) Or start working treats in every day, so you don't need a day off. Or reign in your choices on the day off a bit -- go for what you REALLY want, for one meal. Or keep track of your deficit in a spreadsheet, so you can see the REAL impact of a day of overeating... it's probably not what you think, if you're not familiar with the math. The worst you're going to do from today is slow your weight loss by a smidge -- so instead of 1 lb down by Wednesday, maybe you see that by Thursday or Friday. So what?

(And if this is the first time you've done a "day off"? Be prepared for some possible weight gain in the next few days. It's water weight, so don't panic! It pops back off, it's not fat you have to work off.)

Try to focus on your progress - before you started, would you have even thought about "an off day"? If you are eating less than you previously did, tracking it, and making better choices consider yourself successful! One of the most difficult things to do is to form a healthy relationship with food.
Rosemarie