Feeling guilty about weekend away

It's just food. We need to eat some. It's not sin, even if we eat somewhat extra, or differently. Guilt about it, IMO, is 100% optional. Also, it feels icky.

Sure, eating poorly (by some definitions) can result in feeling physically worse. I honestly don't understand adding feeling psychologically worse on top of that. What does it improve?

I recognize that I may sound dismissive, and that's not how I mean it. Part of reaching and sustaining a healthy weight is mental. In that sense, I don't think that making food into something bigger than it is, is going to be a help. Repeating: It's just food, not sin. Penance, expiation, etc., are not necessary for success.

If you learned that you don't enjoy eating in the way you did for that weekend, that's useful. Learning how you do/don't enjoy eating is part of the process. Figuring out how to accept that learning experience, not beat yourself up over it being "bad", is also part of the process.

I learned a nugget in one of my management training workshops (bizarrely enough) that's served me really well, in a big way, in all parts of my life: When something I don't like happens, I need to consider what I personally have done to create, promote, or allow that situation.

Is that so I can blame myself? No. It's a way of looking at things that highlights what I can do to improve the situation, by focusing on the aspects that I personally can control, or at least influence. In any situation, my attitude/feelings about it are 100% in my control.

I'm not saying it's easy to change those feelings, but it's possible: If you don't like feeling guilty and emotionally/psychologically bad, that's in your control. What advice would you give a dear friend in a similar scenario? Talk to yourself that way, in your head. If your thoughts turn in darker directions, keep giving yourself the best-friend talk. Or breath. Or distract. I figure that letting myself think in a particular way creates ruts in my cognitive pathways, makes it easier next time to think in those same ways. If you're in a negative cognitive rut, it can take work to move to a happier path.

Physically, the bloatedness and other bad feelings will dissipate gradually, as you go back to your normal, more desirable eating patterns. Probably most of any scale-weight gain will drop off, too, within a few days to a couple of weeks, because a large fraction of it is water weight and increased digestive contents on their way to becoming waste. Neither of those are fat, so they're not worth worrying about. You'll see the pattern if you watch calmly for the next couple of weeks, and will learn how your body responds to unusual eating/travel/activity. That's useful to learn, too.

Meanwhile, if you haven't already read it, take a few minutes to read the article linked below. You may find it reassuring, for sure informative.

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

Feeling guilty about eating is a useless emotion.

You didn't do anything wrong. You made a choice.

You chose to eat more while on a weekend trip. That choice was either worth it or it wasn't. That's it.

Saying you feel guilty about eating more on a trip is like saying you feel guilty about getting a haircut that you aren't sure flatters your face, or that you wore shoes that were cute, but gave you blisters.

Do I sometimes regret a haircut or a pair of cute shoes? Absolutely. But I don't feel guilty, I just know not to make that choice again in the future.

If you look back on the eating from the weekend and say "you know what? That was worth every bite and I'm perfectly fine with how this will affect my weight over time" then cool, I'm glad you enjoyed the weekend.

However, if you look back and say "in the moment those meals felt worth it, but looking back, they weren't good enough to be worth the delays in reaching my weight goals" then make a plan to make more effective choices the next time you're in that situation.

You didn't do anything wrong to feel guilty about. You just made some choices that in the moment perhaps felt worth it and now need to assess if your judgement in those moments was in fact correct.

That's it.

You either get that same haircut again or you don't. You either wear the cute shoes again and accept the blisters or you don't. You either eat the way you did during that weekend and accept the impact on your weight or you don't.

No guilt, just rational choices based on known benefits and costs.

Hey, you need to be way kinder to yourself! Don’t be feeling all guilty over relaxing for a weekend. Just get back on it tomorrow. You’ll soon feel good again.

You wouldn’t judge someone else who had a weekend of letting their hair down would you? You MIGHT see a blip on the scales but my word it’ll be insignificant in the long game.

Drink some water, get a good nights sleep and chillax.

I used to feel bad and talk to myself (mentally) like I had done something wrong too- whenever I had over eaten or made a poorer choice-- like many have said-- let's turn that around- I had to LEARN to give myself grace and to NOT run myself down because of a food choice( I mean I would never do that to a friend about one of her choices) so NOW I am getting better at this-- and I am losing more consistently each week- because we really do need to STOP with the food shaming, mental meaness etc- in the area of fitness, eating and health. good luck-- making ONE change at a time

spells1977 wrote: »

Does anyone else feel like this after a holiday?

Of course! Physically, not emotionally.

Airplane travel, car travel, differences in food, water, exercise, eating and sleeping times, etc. all causes differences in the way my body feels. The vacation is usually worth it and more!

Get right back to the habits that keep your body happy and enjoy the memories of your vacation!

Just got back from a week of vacation late on Sunday. On one of these MFP vacation threads recently, I commented to enjoy your time away and make smart choices. During my vacation had meals with friends, some beer, and fun. Jumped on the scale first thing Monday morning and found that I lost 2 pounds over the week. Made sure that if I was going to eat Pizza, a slice was enough. If I drank a beer or two, very light beer was the choice. I never made a big deal out of my choices for others. Fortunately, the vacation included a lot of physical activity and I mostly was able to stick with my OMAD. I had not expected this and was very pleased to see the scale results.