Dificult day

They should be like every other day and not affect you at all. Moderation, self-discipline and being conscientious will do wonders.

I'm not sure what you are saying about two cheat days in a row. If Sunday is your regular cheat day, how about saying that this week your cheat day was Saturday and eat at your regular deficit on Sunday.

Lounmoun wrote: »

Plan to eat at maintenance on holidays and get back to your deficit after.
Get some extra exercise during the holidays to even things out.

This is great advice. You know you'll eat more on holidays, so be okay with that, and plan ahead. Exercise and eating at maintenance are the way to go! You can do it!

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

They should be like every other day and not affect you at all. Moderation, self-discipline and being conscientious will do wonders.

This. Cheating implies doing something wrong, and you are doing nothing wrong when eating any type of food on any day.

Why not just plan those special foods into your diety plan on a regular basis while staying in your calorie goals?

I don't have cheat days. I try to always have a healthy option available. So, if I am going to a party I eat before and take a fruit bowel and/or veggie tray. If I want a taste of something, I don't necessarily deny myself, but I won't eat as much of it.

So, your small children force fed you candy, and then your neighbors held a gun to your head and made you eat pizza. Sounds like you had a rough day.

Seriously, though....this is why I hate the notion of "cheat" days. Nothing is cheating if you can fit it into your plan. Now, I understand it might've been hard to fit in a boatload of candy and pizza in one day. But did you have to eat the candy that your kids offered? Could you have taken one piece and called it day, saving calories for the pizza?

Or, in the alternative, couldn't you have eaten the candy and the pizza, and not had a cheat day today? Where is it written in stone that today has to be your cheat day.

Be a little more flexible with yourself. Maybe rid your vocabulary of the word "cheat" and incorporate treats into your daily plan so you don't feel doomed when faced with children with candy and neighbors with pizza.

Plan ahead. Stop making a big deal about it.

I made a conscious choice to enjoy the free chocolate as much as I liked, while being conscious of how many calories I was consuming, and then logged all of it. A day or two of indulgence isn't going to wreck my long term progress, because I intend on getting right back to work tomorrow. It will possibly slow it down a bit. And I am okay with that.

Weight loss does not have a deadline and should not have to mean never enjoying a holiday.

sinbadfxdl wrote: »

Books and choc. Sounds like you have this thing figured out. I was referring to cheating (indulging) two days in a row. It's just tempting. I'm losing like a freight train going to its destination in time. I like that. When your in the moment, let me know how it feels.

Hmm. Not sure what you mean by "in the moment". What moment? "Losing like a freight train going to its destination on time"? Nope. I honestly don't have any idea what that feels like. Because I don't set a time limit on my weight loss; it comes off when it comes off. I have MFP set to lose a leisurely .5 lb a week. I don't feel that the point is to lose as fast as I can; it's to eat as much as I can while still being able to lose.

Or were you referring to the temptation to cheat? I'm not sure how to answer this. Like everyone else, I have been tempted to overindulge and eat more than my calorie allotment (and I have on occasion given in to this temptation). However, I don't consider it cheating, because cheating implies that you're doing something wrong, or bad, and I learned a long time ago not to put an food (or behavior associated with food) in those categories. In other words, I'm not going to get all high and mighty and say, "Oh, I have NEVER exceeded my calorie goal", because that would be untrue (and obnoxious). But when I do exceed my calorie goal, I'm not going act like I did something wrong; I'm not going to post about how difficult it is to keep from "cheating" two days in a row, because I don't consider it cheating.

I incorporate treats into my plan every day. I'm a chocolate lover, as my user name suggests, so often that treat is some good dark chocolate. Sometimes it's cookies or potato chips. The fact that I eat a small portion of those types of food every day is what keeps me from needing a regularly scheduled day to "cheat" and eat "bad" foods.

I wish you good luck, and hope that your train reaches its destination soon.

ETA (because I'm not sure I made it clear): I'm not suggesting that you change what you're doing. If you're happy with how you're losing, then why would you? I was merely suggesting that you change your approach a little bit, and, as I said earlier, take the word "cheat" out of the equation.