Candy, dammit!

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Soon I've logged faithfully for the past 17 days and I've been so proud of myself! Until I walked into my daughter's room and saw Peeps and Cadbury mini-eggs. Yup, the last two and half week went to s***! This is my pattern, it seems. I got about three weeks and then get back into old habits. I would love to hear how you cope/rally when you fall of the wagon (please tell me that you fall of the wagon - I don't want to be alone!).

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  • TxTiffani
    TxTiffani Posts: 798 Member
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    Log it, do extra exercise, and lower your calories by 100-200 for the next few days off you went over. I eat chocolate everyday but I don't go over my calories and I'm losing;)
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    I usually try to make room in my day for treats like those. For me staying away from them only works if I never encounter them again. Basically, if I don't have say Oreo's for months on end, I tend to want to eat the whole package the next time it's around (and I will eat half the package in one sitting). However if I keep them in the house and allow myself 1 or 2 cookies a day, I have the will power to keep to my calories and not go insane with them. I have a variety bag of Hershey chocolates in the pantry right now (miniature bars/kisses/mini reeses) and I have a couple a day (although this week I've dipped more then normal...chocolate cravings from TOM approaching).
  • Alassonde
    Alassonde Posts: 228 Member
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    Like others here, I have small treats every day so I don't feel so deprived. Another thing I try to do is to really savor it when I do have it....if I mindlessly chow down while I'm reading or something I feel like I need to have more when it's gone.
  • valeriekelly1974
    valeriekelly1974 Posts: 7 Member
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    Thanks y'all! Thess are great suggestions - having a little treat everyday is a great idea! I actually did log everything (right down to the last Peep) in my diary and it's funny, because although the sugar was wickedly high, the calories ended up not being too bad which gives me some hope as I often feel like "oh well, I guess I've ruined everything - may as well quit." Not. Going. To. Happen.
  • WrenTheCoffeeAddict
    WrenTheCoffeeAddict Posts: 148 Member
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    Your daughter must have been really annoyed! haha.
    But yea, what others are saying - Log it. Seriously, type in 20 mini eggs. It makes you think more about what you're eating, and it means you can try and burn it off, or offset for the rest of the week.
    And allow yourself small treats. Otherwise yea, you'll binge, and then you'll feel bad, and binge more.
    I have a go-to treat, Boots Shapers strawberry nougat. They're not healthy in the least, they're a sweet treat, but under 100 calories. I'll have one or two a week, and that keeps me from binging.
  • xtina315
    xtina315 Posts: 218 Member
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    Have treats everyday, if it fits have it! I know personally for me when I've restricted my favorite goodies, I end up binging horribly. So now I have chocolate, cookies, whatever everyday. I have a horrible sweet tooth so I make it fit lol.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    Soon I've logged faithfully for the past 17 days and I've been so proud of myself! Until I walked into my daughter's room and saw Peeps and Cadbury mini-eggs. Yup, the last two and half week went to s***! This is my pattern, it seems. I got about three weeks and then get back into old habits. I would love to hear how you cope/rally when you fall of the wagon (please tell me that you fall of the wagon - I don't want to be alone!).

    Remember - THERE IS NO WAGON. There is you and the food you eat. Sometimes you eat more, sometimes you eat less.
  • absentmindedhousewife
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    I had enough calories at the end of Monday that I got a nice big glass of milk and girl scout cookies. Just budget treats in. A life without chocolate sucks.
  • 100df
    100df Posts: 668 Member
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    Are those candies your favorites? Don't always succeed but I try hard not eating candy calories that aren't my favorite. I try to look at it as a waste of calories. I look at the Peeps and minieggs and tell myself I can wait until the Swiss chocolate is around.

    Peeps can be ordered all year so no reason to put them off until you can make them fit reasonably.

    All this sounds so great but I am extremely grateful I mailed the Easter basket to my daughter because she's in college. It's tough having all that stuff hanging around just waiting to be eaten.
  • benzieboxx
    benzieboxx Posts: 253 Member
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    Ha you're definitely not alone! My mom gave me a very small Easter bag with a little bit of candy in it. I just made it fit. Yeah, it's not something I would choose usually (some of those mini versions of candy are ridiculous and not even worth it!) but I don't want to waste it and as long as I make it fit, what's the harm?

    Just be honest with yourself. If you eat it, log it, and then move on! Don't beat yourself up about it. Willpower only gets stronger when you exercise it regularly!!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,502 Member
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    There have been days during my weight loss when I logged 500, 1000, or more calories above and beyond my estimated maintenance calorie level. Guess what? Over time, I still lost weight. I just didn't do things like that very often. (I'm down 65 pounds since this time last year, CW around 118.)

    I didn't/don't think of these times as "falling off the wagon", I think of it as "eating above my calorie goal one time".

    Here's what helped me: Developing enough understanding of the weight loss arithmetic that I could roughly estimate, in my head, the impact of an over-goal day. One needs to eat approximately 3500 calories above one's maintenance calorie level in order to gain a pound.

    So, let's pretend I'm running a 500-calorie-per-day deficit (losing 1 lb per week), and my calorie goal is 1500 per day. One day I go totally wild and eat 3000 calories, fully two times my daily goal. Yikes!

    Well, maybe not: My estimated maintenance calories are 2000 (goal of 1500 + deficit of 500). I ate 1000 over that. So, I won't lose any weight the over-goal day, of course. That still leaves 1000 calories over maintenance to make up for - that's a weight gain! How much? Less than 1/3 pound (1000/3500).

    Now I need to lose that, using my 500 calorie daily deficit . . . two more days. I've delayed reaching my ultimate goal weight by 3 whole days.

    As long as I don't do this very often, big bleepin' deal. Now, if I go over goal once a week by this much, we're starting to look at noticeably slowed weight loss overall (losing less than 2/3 pounds a week, instead of a whole pound). If I do it twice a week, it will take a really, really long time to get to goal weight.

    You're already logging your over-goal eating - that's great. Since you have the data, you're in a perfect position to start using a little estimation to put these things in perspective. (You can use estimates to decide whether & how much to eat on some special occasion, too, if you like.)

    You'll see more weight added on the scale than what you estimate, because of water weight that comes along with the process (more sodium, carbs, and calories than normal). But the estimates will help you understand what's really going on.

    tl;dr: Don't worry, as long as you don't go over goal very often, you'll lose weight just fine.
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
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    Have you completely stopped eating in moderation since the Peepcident? If so, you haven't fallen off the wagon, you had a momentary lack of control. Do some extra exercise, cut back on some calories a little bit for the next few days, and move on.
    Guilting yourself about it can lead to stopping your progress in a healthy lifestyle by causing you to continue to eat poor. Just accept it, remember the incident, and keep going.
  • valeriekelly1974
    valeriekelly1974 Posts: 7 Member
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    How grateful am I to have these responses?!? SOOooo, here is what I have learned: disregard the wagon - there is no wagon (love it!), log EVERYTHING - even the rubbish (check!), provide a small treat everyday to avoid the restrict and binge cycle, eat less and exercise more in the days following the Peepcident. Beyond thankful! Have a great day y'all! Off to hot yoga now to rid myself of the peeps-toxins that are floating around my body! Namaste.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    If you have been on MFP for 3 weeks and been on the '1 pound a week' deficit, that would be over 10,000 calories to undo all your work. I highly doubt you ate that much in candy...

    That's why you log everything... so what, you messed up and had what, 500 calories? of candy. That's one DAY of deficit. You'll make up for it tomorrow. Log it and move on.

    That's why MFP works... you don't get to use the 'I messed up, might as well give up' excuse, as long as you're honest with yourself and logging everything... you realize that it's really not the end of the world, and you get back on track the next day.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
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    I love the word "peepcident"