Oh. My. God. Baaaad day.

You cannot uneat the food, so stop cursing yourself. You ate a little extra on one day. It won't be the last one!

Try not to let your emotions get caught up in what you eat. Enjoy it, log it (as best you can) and then move on.

You went to a wedding though! No matter where someone is on their weight loss journey, everyone deserves to be able to enjoy themselves at a wedding without worrying about calories. You'll most likely eat above your maintenance for the day and possibly retain water for a few days after, but unless you ate the entire wedding party's food, you're not going to gain several pounds from one day of indulgence. It's better to have enjoyed yourself for the day than to wonder what that piece of chicken or piece of cake tasted like at a wedding that will never happen again. Unfortunately you gave away most of your food, but there's no reason to curse yourself for what you did eat. Losing weight should be about having a healthy balance in your life. Being able to eat reasonably on a daily basis, but feeling confident and stable enough to indulge on occasion without feeling guilt or regret.

SB_Australia wrote: »

I went to a wedding today & realised I had chosen my meal when I RSVP'd (they put a menu selection in with the invitation) which was well before I started caring about what I eat. Of course it was a terrible choice (for dieting, the food was beautiful) but it was that or nothing...over 1000 calories later...I did however give my dessert & entree to someone else & drank water with lemon in it instead of having wine. Now I'm having lettuce for dinner & cursing past me for being so indulgent!

oh_happy_day wrote: »

One meal will hardly make or break your goals. There will always be weddings, holidays, etc. Plus it sounds like you avoided alcohol and skipped dessert - so how about reframing this experience. You ate some beautiful food at a celebration of a new marriage and you made some smart choices to minimise your calorie intake. Forget the lettuce for dinner as 'punishment'. Just eat something you would normally and then keep going tomorrow.

^^This. Log it and move on.

With all due respect: you're being overly dramatic.

I'm also a bit confused....if you gave away your desert and entree, and drank nothing but water, what DID you eat that made you put yourself in Lettuce Exile?

Whatever the case.....it was ONE meal. Do you plan on doing this for the rest of your life, giving away deserts and entrees and then punishing yourself with nothing but lettuce?

Obviously, do what you want. But IMO such an approach is not sustainable. Make room in your life for treats and special occasions. You can still lose weight that way, I promise.

I recognize that "now I've gone and blown it" thinking. For me it came from wanting to lose weight quickly. Now that I have recognized the longterm benefits of losing weight slowly, one day makes no difference at all.

PS I assume you meant appetizer when you said entrée.

SB_Australia wrote: »

I went to a wedding today & realised I had chosen my meal when I RSVP'd (they put a menu selection in with the invitation) which was well before I started caring about what I eat. Of course it was a terrible choice (for dieting, the food was beautiful) but it was that or nothing...over 1000 calories later...I did however give my dessert & entree to someone else & drank water with lemon in it instead of having wine. Now I'm having lettuce for dinner & cursing past me for being so indulgent!

It is one meal. Consider that your cheat

I missed breakfast last week and instead ended up having a late brunch in a restaurant that after calculating was 1,200. I had to workout so I wouldn't feel guilty. I dont do that everyday much like you dont eat... Prime rib with mashed potatoes and whatever else set you over the limit. You got this. It is a wedding, next time eat the cake!

Alright, I'll bite. I'm confused.... You knew you were going to a wedding and left yourself no calories to eat dinner? Entree selection aside, you ate lettuce and drank water? And are feeling guilty?

This doesn't make sense to me. I went to nine weddings this season and never once logged in under my calorie goal. I still maintained my weight. One day is not going to break you. Log and move on.

I never try to hit a calorie goal at a wedding. I typically eat smaller at the other meals of the day, and I try to log as best I can, but it's a special occasion. As long as you're not constantly celebrating the longest consecutive number of days that you've been alive, celebrations won't derail you physically. It's up to you to not let them derail you mentally.

I was at a wedding not long ago, I ate the food, drank the wine, ate my slice of cake, and had fun, and then got up the next day and kept working on weight loss.

SB_Australia wrote: »

I sent the RSVP for the wedding WITH MY MENU SELECTION months ago (they sent menus out with the invitation & asked us to pick our meal ahead of time). I only started this on Friday so I'm still very new & bumbling my way through.

Ah, you're new to this.

The best advice really is just log it and move on. Weight loss is a long journey, you'll make plenty of missteps along the way. (Although again, I wouldn't even consider this a misstep - not every single day is going to be at a deficit, even though the vast majority will be, and a wedding is a time to celebrate, not count calories.) The important thing to do is learn from whatever mistakes you make and build good habits.

Think back to when you learned to ride a bike (assuming you did). How many bumps, bruises, scrapes, and skinned knees did you have? Dieting is a lot like that, you feel bad for a bit and then you get back on the bike and try again.

The more you beat yourself up for it, or try to deprive yourself of something else because of a real or perceived failure, the less likely you are to succeed. You have to accept the road to better health is not a perfectly straight line that you will never deviate from, but a path that will sometimes meander or double back before making its way onward. That's enough analogies for now

SB_Australia wrote: »

kkenseth wrote: »

Alright, I'll bite. I'm confused.... You knew you were going to a wedding and left yourself no calories to eat dinner? Entree selection aside, you ate lettuce and drank water? And are feeling guilty?

This doesn't make sense to me. I went to nine weddings this season and never once logged in under my calorie goal. I still maintained my weight. One day is not going to break you. Log and move on.

I sent the RSVP for the wedding WITH MY MENU SELECTION months ago (they sent menus out with the invitation & asked us to pick our meal ahead of time). I only started this on Friday so I'm still very new & bumbling my way through.

I understand that part...but what did you do the day of the wedding? You still could have left yourself calories to eat more than lettuce and water. My concern is that eating lettuce and water should not make you feel guilty. You should be able to enjoy a wedding without it being such an awful day.

Don't worry, no one is attempting to criticize you.

We've all just started out at some point and we knew far less back then than we do now (whether we started 3 years ago or 3 weeks ago). When I first started, I was under the impression that if I wasn't eating chicken and veggies or a salad I was doing it wrong. I was eating very low calories during the week, exercising a lot, and it wasn't sustainable for me. I ended up binging on the weekends and getting no where with my weight loss.

Luckily, I stuck around the boards and learned a lot from people who have been very successful around here. Here are some tips that hopefully will be helpful for you:

• There is no such thing as "bad" foods. Your focus should be on whole, nutrient dense foods, but you can work in foods that are more calorie dense. Just work on eating smaller portions.
• Life happens. You can plan all sorts of things, but something will go wrong. Learning to adapt is important. Not that planing isn't important as well, but you have to be able to think on your feet.
• Events will happen. They luckily aren't everyday. But friends and family should remain important to you, as should enjoying yourself. It is difficult to laugh and have fun with everyone when all you are doing is thinking about the calories in everything around you.
• You can plan for events you know are coming up. Eat 100-200 calories less than your daily goal the week before your event; then you can splurge a little at your event.
• If you do splurge, expect the weight gain on the scale. I can see a 3-8lb jump after a day of extravagance. I know it's not fat gain; it's just water. It will fall off over the following week.