Disgusted with myself

Yeah. I was weak and lazy on Thanksgiving and the day after too. I had goals, and I failed. But I plan on living many more years and 3 days is a drop in the bucket. You realize you can start again today, right?

incisron wrote: »

I eat more than 1000, I just don't log everything as some of the food I ear isn't cooked by me.

On days like this, guess. It's better and truer than leaving it blank, and at least you can start to see the trends happening like weight, protein, calories....those are great to watch after the first 3 weeks or so....you can do this. Its in you, it's ON you....don't worry about the odd day here and there, as said above, there's gonna be many more days left in your life, a few are really just a drop in the bucket......Good luck!

I struggle with an all-or-nothing mentality at times also, and I find that when I have an all-or-nothing attitude I usually end up with nothing! So yes, start right now and make your first commitment to "log all your food" on MFP. If you are eating out or eating at a friend's house, simply take a quick picture of your plate, and that night simply give it your best guess on the quantities based on your picture, not your memory.

The biggest thing that helped me was to change my focus, and adopt "positive" goals and not "negative" ones. In the past, when I would start a "diet" (and subsequently "fail") my mentality was a DIET mentality, it was based on something I wanted to get OUT of my life (the fat) and was usually begun because I was in emotional pain or conflict that I wanted to GET AWAY from. As it would always happen, I'd be PERFECT for awhile, and then the emotional pain and conflict would LESSEN, and I would get more comfortable and "happier" and thus the motivating factor that had me start the program (the pain and conflict) would ease up. This would cause me to begin to "slip" off my program, I never seemed to be able to actually GET to my goal!

Then I read a book called "Dr. A's Habits of Health" by Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen and his philosophy of creating optimal health (instead of "dieting") really stuck with me. I began to look FORWARD at what I could create with the process of committing to a program that would see me through, and I let the excitement and anticipation of what was coming (optimal health) motivate me. In essence, I changed my goal from a negative one (something I wanted OUT of my life) to a positive one (something awesome I could bring INTO my life as a result of becoming optimally healthy) and it really saw me through the tougher times because I wanted health MORE than I wanted the off-plan food items.

I hope this helps!

incisron wrote: »

I promised myself I'd do a month of trying to stay within calories and no "cheats." After a week and a half, I had a higher calorie meal and a couple desserts on Thanksgiving and then fell out of routine for two more days. I could have stuck to routine if id had willpower, but I was weak and lazy. I've also put on water weight that id lost in the previous week.

The problem isn't really your eating. Three days of overeating won't physically derail your weight loss, assuming you're not going over by tens of thousands of calories. The problem is your reaction to your eating - you're the one allowing this to mentally derail your weight loss.

You won't be perfect. Thankfully, you don't need to be. You don't need a perfect score on your calorie "report card" to lose weight. You don't even need a very good score to pass. You only need to be good enough. You don't gain or lose any significant amount of weight in one day or three days - it's about the combined effects of one hundred or three hundred days that are what you really care about.

I went over on Thanksgiving too - I knew I would, and I just tried to keep it within reason, which is what I do on any holiday or special occasion. In the very worst case scenario, if I really overate, it might delay reaching my final goal by a day or two. Not the end of the world, since holidays and special occasions are vastly outnumbered by normal days.

If you throw in the towel every time you have a bad day this is going to be tough for you, don't be so tough on yourself and realize a day or two in the long run is really not a big deal.

I've lost 45 lbs, usually having one or two treat days a week and eating 1700 to 1800 the other days (plus exercise calories). Water weight is unimportant. I've set a more agressive goal until Christmas of 1200 (to lose 8+ lbs) but I will eat back all my exercise calories. Try to be kind to yourself. I find allowing these treat days really strengthens my commitment to give my all the rest of the week and I don't feel trapped.