It sounds like you're sensitive enough that those few indiscretions did manage to have a big effect on you. Of course, assuming they were carb related, they come with a bunch of water weight too. But it's important not to downplay them as being insignificant especially when they easily create a 15 pound scale weight swing.
I think the mindset that it "shouldn't" be a big deal can be problematic for those that it physiologically actually IS a big deal to. I agree it's not a fair shake, but just because it seems unfair and doesn't make sense to the CICO mindset, doesn't mean it won't cause a much bigger setback than it "should".
I've had to develop the thinking that certain things are simply not food for me to be able to achieve the kind of consistency that keeps me from wandering into even the smallest indiscretions. Even with my very strict adherence, I've been pretty much the same weight for about 5-6 months now. Up and down the same 3 pounds. If I had any off plan foods, on even a once a month basis, I imagine I would have been set back at least a few pounds. And I'm not even particularly carb sensitive.
I think it's very important for the long term to be consistent and to train yourself to believe you're not missing out on anything by skipping foods that are problematic to that consistency. The emotional aspect that some foods are simply bad for our health and progress and if we decide to partake, we are making that trade for a temporary satisfaction is important to recognize and create a plan to not allow ourselves to feel left out or deprived by simply not eating something that we know isn't a good choice simply because of its flavor... I personally found that saying things like that to myself worked. "Am I really going to allow this food to negatively affect my body and my spirit because of making the bad choice to eat it for a few seconds or maybe a couple minutes of getting to taste it?" That kind of thing works for me because I can't seriously say "yes, a few seconds of tasting this is worth it". There are so many things that taste good that I can choose so there's no reason to choose something that has so much baggage.

erinseattle wrote: »

Every so often I do what I call "lockdown" -

@erinseattle - yep, great concept. "Lockdown Erin" has a nice ring to it.

PS. www.lockdowndiet.com is not in use...

Don't forget that artificial sweeteners can cause unexplained weight gain too! I don't know if you're using them, but know they can!

I like nuts too much to give them up; however, I completely understand how easy it is to overeat them. To effectively combat this problem, whenever I get a new bag or can of nuts, I literally sit down and portion the entire package out into individual portion sizes in small snack bags and then put everything back into the container. That way, in the future when I want some nuts I can just grab a small snack bag because (1) they've already been portioned out which saves me some time and is very convenient and (2) it will keep me from overeating the nuts because I know a "serving size" is contained in the snack bag I just grabbed.