Guilt, forgiveness, weight loss, slips, binged

theyoginurse
theyoginurse Posts: 82 Member
edited November 2024 in Motivation and Support
How do you forgive yourself for having a slip? I have been doing fantastic for 12 days straight. Lost 5lbs! Did not gravitate off my calorie goals and have been feeling like things are getting better for me. Then last night, I slipped. I am in the red -2400 calories for my day. I feel like a failure. Years of dieting has really warped my perception, and I am here because I want to think like a healthy person. Can anybody give some insight and/or support on how I can move on from this? I appreciate it a lot! Thank you!

Replies

  • RunawayCurves
    RunawayCurves Posts: 688 Member
    Messing up is an unavoidable side effect of being a human being. The trick is damage limitation. Least damaging reaction is a gentle look at what triggered the slip up, add it to learning experiences, forgive self and move on with plenty of self love. Most damaging reaction is to beat self up leading to more stress, more, pain , more anger and increasing likelihood of both punishing and comforting oneself with more harmful food choices.

    Self sabotage comes from a lack of self love. Fastest way out of it is to work on self love and self forgiveness.
  • theyoginurse
    theyoginurse Posts: 82 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    I never feel bad to begin with. It's all about progress, not perfection. I went through a phase where I tried to be perfect all the time. If I ate some something I wasn't supposed to, or skipped a workout, or overate.. I would feel guilty and give up. Now I just keep on going no matter what I do. If you were on your way to work, and you took a turn that caused a 5min delay or there was a bit of traffic, would you turn around and go home or get out of the car and sit on the side of the road for the rest of day? Probably not right. So even if you go over your cals, you may not get to your destination as fast as you were before, but that doesn't mean you should stop and give up!

    You just helped me so much. It makes perfect sense. I went about my day, got out of the self-pity, and will keep on going. Thanks it not enough!
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Don't think you have to forgive yourself - that makes you feel like you've been bad, and thinking that you've been bad, sets you up for overeating, to take away that feeling. Just accept that you're human, and do what you can to eat reasonably every day, using your calorie target as a ballpark number. You could also aim for damage control - don't have lots of too-easy foods lying around, but plan and eat delicious, balanced meals. Most people don't eat the same amount of calories every day - appetite varies, available time varies, mood varies. This is normal. You're just a normal person.
  • Adamanda5
    Adamanda5 Posts: 38 Member
    I think the slip itself is less important than what you do right after the slip. Try to look at it like a test. If you are truly committed to making a change in your lifestyle, you can look at what triggered this slip in an effort to avoid future slips, and move on, empowered with that new knowledge/experience. Remember, you have the benefit of looking back at what you logged. Strictly looking at calories, you made 5 steps forward and less than 1 step back. You're still ahead! Drink a bottle of water, find a good distraction that takes you away from what triggered your slip, and shrug it off.
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,474 Member
    we all go through it, pick yourself up, focus, will power, how bad do you want it?
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    Log it and move on, no guilt required! 1 day actually doesn't undo all your hard work but just as a word of caution if you consistently had days like that then you know you would eventually gain.

  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,540 Member
    Because you know the number of calories, assuming you tracked it. If not, go back and make a good faith effort to list everything and put a number on it.

    Everyone wants to track the good days. WL is a set of things to do. Tracking is #1. As pointed out above, it's not possible to do something as long term and complex as WL without mistakes. There are lots of ways to eat too many calories, bad plans, poor concentration, even bad math. But there's only one way not to track.

    Instead of kicking yourself, look back and try to figure out how you could have done better. And how you plan to do better next time in similar circumstances. Long view. Really long.
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