I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning !! My day started out rotten and with a co-worker needling me all day - I was at my wits end when I sat down for dinner. I ate my pre-planned meal -- and then went nuts. Within an hour I had also consumed
1) Two entire servings of peanut butter (390 cal).
2) Two Three Musketeers bar (2@260 = 520 cal).
3) Six chewy chocolate chip cookies (270 cal).
4) Roughly three servings of pretzels (3@120 = 360 cal).
By the time I was done ... I was sweating profusely - I had not eaten like that since I was 190 lbs. when I graduated high school.
I was so frustrated with myself I put on my running shoes and walked out the door - Four hours later, I had gone on a 15.3 mile hike around San Antonio.
That's all it took to gain a little PERSPECTIVE !! I had burned approximately 1310 calories during my walk. I had consumed about 1540 calories during my pig out. It is scary to know I still have to run two more miles extra on top of the two or three I was going to run tomorrow in order to break even.
I came back from Christmas break @ 159 lbs. I started my eating healthy pledge on 8 January. I was @ 149 lbs last time I weighed myself. Before had this happened, i would have thrown in the towel and gone back to poor eating habits. Something I read over the course of my eating healthy told me - Sometimes you have to rob Peter to pay Paul.
Yes, I screwed up ... but what I learned tonight was that there are ways to fix it ... It's like when I read you have to run the length of a football field to burn the calories in one M&M off.
Please tell me I am not crazy for walking those miles. I hope to hear that it was a reasonable effort to admit a mistake to myself and take proactive steps to help. It sure as **** is going to make me think the next time I want to eat heavily because now I know what will inevitably have to follow.
Or was it a misdirected idea to walk that far?? I'm struggling with the obsessiveness of it all. Did I really need to do that ... should I do it again if I screw up in the future??
Dude, I hope you're used to walking that much or you will be in some sad shape tomorrow! Do I think it's crazy, yes, but I walk 15 miles, in a WEEK!!
Having said that, the only thing to do, is shower! Then get back on plan. So, you had an off night, a big one, granted, but it will NOT undue the last 6 weeks efforts. Nope, no way no how. Sure the scale will be up tomorrow, you ate alot of sodium, it'll level out a bit, you may have gained a pound, but, it will NOT undue all your previous efforts.
You're not crazy at all! I think a 15-mile hike might have been a bit excessive, but if you haven't hurt yourself, you're fine. And better than fine, in fact; you headed off the possibility of totally giving up, and going even one more than that, you headed it off with physical activity - a HEALTHY reaction to stress!
Hon, I am SUPER proud of you. I wish I could do that!!
I'm fortunate that I run 3-4 miles every other day in the mornings during the work week and do strength training the other two week days. I also run about ten miles after work with friends divided up into two or three afternoons a week. I normally run either Saturday or Sunday also making sure I completely take one day a week to recuperate.
I actually love to exercise so I think I will be okay tomorrow if i warm up for a little longer and take it easy on my pace.
Thank you so much for your encouragement. It is so unbelievably awesome to actually get help from other women who understand what you are struggling against ... without all the competiveness and cattiness that seems to abound.
Last edited by Perspective; 02-24-2007 at 01:09 AM.
I don't think it's a problem if this isn't a habit for you. If you start to do this regularly then it is a problem because it falls into the ED category - bulimics typically binge and throw up or take laxatives or over exercise to compensate. A one off time though is just will power in my book!
A walk isn't a bad thing. But you don't want to get into a binge/punish cycle, and that's kind of what it sounds like.
I've heard that its best not to try to undo a bad day of eating by being extra strict and going too low on food and too high on exercise the next day (or in your case, the same night). It's better to get right back on track with your plan, as planned. Let it go. Move on.
Think of other ways you could have coped with that bad day besides a kitchen assault. Maybe going for the walk right after the planned meal would have been a better option--you wouldn't have had to go for 15 miles, for one thing!
Not crazy, extreme yes, but not crazy! And good for you for being so. Perhaps if every one did an activity like that when they made poor eating decisions the world wouldn't be so fat. It would put eating in perspective- we don't walk everywhere and raise a farm anymore- we (as a people) talk on message boards, cell phones, and ride to work in a car or bus. ^_^ I proud of you and I don't even know you! LoL.
I agree with the others who say not to let it become a habit. An occasional 15 mile hike isn't a bad thing at all to do because you enjoy it, but thinking of it as the consequence of your overeating creates a negative link between food and exercise. Just my opinion though
During the summer months, I do a 2 to 3 mile run in the park, followed by another 4 to 5 miles of walking....5 or 6 days a week! So doing 15 for a day isn't crazy. Walking is an easy exercise that can also be fun and enjoyable. But like has been said, don't get into a habit of binging because you think you can just go walk it off. I don't see that as something that would happen from just this incident though. You had a rough day that just got you down. Next time go for the walk BEFORE you pick up the food. You'll do a shorter walk, burn some cals and NOT consume any.
I hate to see you thinking of it as a form of punishment for a night of bingeing but I've done pretty much the same thing myself. Last Christmas , I knew I'd want to partake of dessert. So, I walked 3 miles before Christmas dinner, had the desserts and food that I wanted, came home and walked 6 more miles. This was my attempt to help "undo the damage" from eating a couple pieces of pie. Since you are very active with your walking and running it probably won't hurt as much as it did for me. I normally only walk 2-3 miles a day and that extra 6 miles had me sweating like crazy and gasping for air. I was very determined/ but not to darn smart. A better way to have handled it for me (and probably you) would have been to increase our exercise by just a couple miles extra for a few days and work off any gain slowly.
If you were having a bad day, and it made you think about it.. and i'm sure you thought about other things as well. Sometimes you need something extreme to get you out of a bad mood.
I would also be worried if this was a regular thing as well, just don't make it a regular thing!
Today is smooth sailing!! Back on track and thoroughly enjoyed my run. Looking forward to a wonderfully relaxing night reading a book and turning in early. Thanks for your understanding and patience with me - you are wonderful.
your post inspired many thoughts and feelings. I'm not in shape now but working on it and when I was in very good s hape, walking was my favorite thing! more of a hobby! I absolutely loved and love to walk outdoors and quite frankly, a long walking adventure like that, would oh so ring my bell! Found myself wishing I was in san antonio to go with you I would do about 5 miles a day beach walk back then and 20 mile walk for hunger, and even as in good shape as I was a change of socks, my feel would still blister!
Okay, I smiled when I read your post. I felt admiration , inspiration, etc. I really liked your pro-active approach to it all! With me, for example, with such a bad night in the past , I would spiral into an extreme depression! Feelings of self loathe, depression, ohhhhhhh..........it's such an awful feeling! and often times, it would lead into a cycle of eating more to console myself! So depressed, I could hardly have the energy to get up and counteract it! so I indeed do admire you for what you did!!!!!!! Instead of leeting that cycle feed on itself and go round and round, you counter acted!!!!!!!!
I don't think it is crazy (my personal opinion) and I'll tell you wh y! You sound to be in very good shape and you exercise regularly to an extent where perhaps you were not hurting yourself physically, or shall I say, you seem physically capable of doing what you did! for one thing, if it you were not physically capable of doing what you did, I dont think you could have done it in the fi rst place! walking so far and at such a clip, no way! your muscles would have given out on you. I n this sense, I say its not crazy but had you not been at the fitness level that you currently are, that's another story!
I feel the other posters brought up very good and valid points though! To keep an eye on it, so that it doesn't become a frequent or excessive thing. Correct me if im wrong, but I think your endeavor positively reinforced you and THAT is what you have to watch. Don't get me wrong, its super, I admire you! but just keep an eye on it. I know what you mean about a new "PERSPECTIVE" but to a much lesser extent. I had a roll and some bacon last week and went on the treadmill after to see how long it would take to burn off! gosh! lol. I had to work hard just for that! It did give me that perspective though and somehow made me realize the work i had to do or how that extra impacted me! I guess the trick is to achieve a balance, as with anything in life. A delicate dance it is, a delicate dance! You mentioned that night as a "screw up", look, when and or if that changes to an intentional thing like "oh wow, i can do this and do that after, cool" that's when I would put my red flag up! In a nutshell, as long as it doesn't become a frequent habit, all the more to you girl! By the sounds of your writing, etc, I think you will think harder now (with the new perspective and all) before it happening again (as will I with my flirt with the bread and bacon, lol).
One more thing. I can't help but notice and wonder! I think maybe you burned more caloreis than that? You stated a burn of 1310 cals in 4 hrs. and approx. 15 miles. How are you coming to that figure? just curious. For example, today at the 30 min. mark (at approx. 3.1 mph but varies as i had a warm up session) I burned 175 cals, making it 350 an hour and 1400 cals in 4 hrs. and thats just at an approx. speed of 3.1! You walked at an average clip of about 3.7 miles per hour! and the caloric burn increases with speed, as im sure you know, so given to reason, you burned well over 1400 in that 4 hr. time frame. how are you measuring it? have you tried the internet? I just have a measure on my treadmill, etc. though i do know there are variations. anyways, just something I inoticed and thought to point out, let me know ok? im curious....I really think you burned more cals than originally thought.
You want to hear something funny? I read your post this morning and told my husband about it........I liked your spunk! anyways, I had an inkling for some white wine tonight. I did a double workout today and later ran down the basement stairs all sweaty (lucky him, lol) and retorted, " hi honey, I am pre-paying paul so I can rob peter tonight" hahahaha, he burst out laughing
Please tell me I'm not crazy:)!!
!! I had burned approximately 1310 calories during my walk. I had consumed about 1540 calories during my pig out. It is scary to know I still have to run two more miles extra on top of the two or three I was going to run tomorrow in order to break even.
Maybe going for the walk right after the planned meal would have been a better option--you wouldn't have had to go for 15 miles, for one thing!
