Overthinking Summer Plans...

I am prone to over thinking and perfectionism. Tackling both of those things head on was hugely important in me being able to lose weight.

So. While my inclination was to try real hard to figure out how to log food and exercise during summer business/activity, I ultimately decided to breathe and relax and just do the best I can with it, keep an eye on myself/weight and see how things go. Being healthier and maintaining my weight has to fit into my life. It is not my life.

I'm not so much an overthinker (anymore). I'm more of an experimenter. Maybe you'd enjoy reading about one of my experiments, I dunno. It was only a long weekend, not a whole week vacation, but in my experience, some of the same principles apply.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope/p1

Unlike in that episode, which was pretty much sitting all day while away, I'm usually pretty active on vacations. Also, I can't literally keep eating *that* much day after day, because the cumulative effect is that the full feeling carries over so it stops being enjoyable or even tempting. So, I might keep eating somewhat over maintenance, but not 2-3 times maintenance. (I learned that by experimenting, too. 😆)

From further experiments, I've learned that I'm capable of eating freely for a day (holiday, birthday) or few (vacation), then getting right back on my usual routine when that episode is over. At worst, I might have a pound or two to lose, and I've proven I know how to do that. (Usually, there's pretty much only temporary water weight. If a bit more than that, just knocking off 100 or so calories for a while will take care of it gradually, pretty stress-free, now that I'm in maintenance. While losing, I just let my normal deficit handle it, treated it as a short delay in reaching goal weight. NBD.)

If something goes seriously haywire, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to tell myself it was water under the bridge, not feel bad/guilty (what's the point? burns no extra calories, feels icky), learn from it, and do what needs to be done going forward. That part wasn't a well-founded experimental finding, but smaller obstacles/slips and knowledge of my own personality suggest that as a reasonable hypothesis. I've been through almost a year of weight loss (50+ pounds), followed by 5+ years since of maintaining a healthy weight (up and down a few pounds, but all in a healthy range, normal BMI), so I've had some opportunities to observe.

Now, I can't say for sure that any of my experiments apply to other people, because so much of weight maintenance is individualized and idiosyncratic. But for me, I don't worry much about short, temporary exceptions; I think the majority of our days determine the majority of our progress.

Just offering a different view, from (I think?) a non-overthinker. YMMV.

It's okay to just enjoy your vacation. The biggest concern is if you drink and eat a bunch of junk you'll probably throw up if you've been in a deficit for a while not drinking. Try to keep it modest but still have fun.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Beverly2Hansen wrote: »

It's okay to just enjoy your vacation. The biggest concern is if you drink and eat a bunch of junk you'll probably throw up if you've been in a deficit for a while not drinking. Try to keep it modest but still have fun.

FWIW, I think I did that experiment, too, probably more than once. For me, no throwing up. (Even though I had occasions where I drank generous amounts of alcohol after not drinking at all for quite a while, and with stuff like deep-fried beer-battered whatever and gooey pizza alongside, there was no throwing up, not even close. From very bad experiments in my youth many decades ago, I would have to drink much more to get to that stage than I'm willing to drink now in one session, as a 65 y/o li'l ol' lady.)

I do tend to have pretty rock-solid digestive system, though, despite no longer having a gallbladder. I see people here report that after losing weight (even with intact gallbladder, I think) they can no longer consume foods like that without feeling sick.

I'm probably not a good influence here, in this respect . . . .

OP, you should probably pay attention to @Beverly2Hansen, in this context. Not to me. 😉

I think I'm like this with you, though with a gallbladder. My tolerance for nearly everything is the the same as it always was. The one exception is straight up dairy milk or a lot of ice cream. That now gives me a heck of a stomach ache after mostly drinking almond milk to cut some calories. Any kind of really processed dairy (yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese cheese) is still fine.

That said, dairy milk and ice cream are the only things I STOPPED eating.