I can probably tell you exactly what your problem is.
I just bet, since breakfast, you have felt guilty for the rest of the day
for enjoying the day without dieting, right? You've put on so much
pressure on yourself to be GOOD everyday, that when a special occasion
comes up like today, you hate yourself?
STOP. RIGHT. NOW!!!!! Just stop beating yourself up for being like any
other person enjoying one day without dieting.
This is what I do, I don't know if it will help you, but here goes:
My diet is calorie counting. I cycle my calories around everyday. Sunday
was my youngest daughter's birthday, so I planned ahead, shaved some
calories off of the day before and day after, so I could enjoy the day
with her without feeling "bad". I didn't go overboard, and neither did the
rest of my family, as we're all on the same "diet" if you will. I told my
kids- enjoy today! A birthday is a special day, and we have five of them
within the year. The next two don't come up until November, so we have
plenty of "dieting" to do inbetween.
Oh, and you know what? We're going to my brother-in-law's wedding next
week, which is in Texas- we're from New Hampshire. So, we all decided
we're going to enjoy the rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding dinner by
taking extra walks, swimming, and shifting our calories around so that we
can enjoy the meals without feeling guilty. Why should we feel guilty for
being like everybody else? Think that the skinny minis of this world drive
themselves crazy over a small piece of wedding cake? This is an event,
along with our birthdays, that I consider "special". Rather than feel
guilty about it, we're just merely going to shift calories around, get in
some fun exercise, and enjoy it. How many times will their uncle get
married? Once. So, we're going to enjoy it!
Fourth of July- same thing. We won't go crazy, but we will have a nice
picnic lunch at the Kang (one of our favorite summer swimming holes up
here) and have a nice BBQ at home with friends, with a golden cake topped
with whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries, and oranges. That may sound funny, but my
three kids love three different fruits, so I compromise and put 1/3 of
each fruit on, so they can all enjoy it. No guilt, we will somewhere make
up for it.
The other night, at my daughter's sports banquet- they had a BBQ that we
didn't know about ahead of time. My youngest two looked at me, and I said
"go ahead! we'll just take a two mile walk when we get home." That's
exactly what we did, and they enjoyed it very much. They were careful,
taking one hot dog, small handful of chips, and an ice cream sandwich,
which was 120 calories I saw on the package. I didn't have one, but I had
a hotdog, some macaroni salad (about 1/4 of a cup), and a handful of
chips. We were all full from the BBQ, so we didn't need any dinner or
snack afterwards.
Now, we could have walked out, and my kids would have missed out-
especially my oldest daughter, who has several friends that are graduated
and she may not see them again after the summer. Would it have been worth
the 600 calories to pull them away from this event, and set them up for a
lifetime of feeling guilty anytime they enjoy something like everybody
else, or do I let them enjoy it, like we all did, and watch them portion
control themselves, without guilt? See where I am going with this?
We feel so damn guilty about small things in life. I was thinking about
how many "special occasions" there are this year coming up- birthdays,
holidays, and one wedding. I counted 14 days total out of 365 days. I am
not going to beat myself up for enjoying them, and those that I know ahead
of time, I will plan for by eating less calories for a week or two before
it happens or a week before and week after. Things that come up
unexpectedly like the BBQ at DD's sports banquet the other night- enjoy it, just portion control it so you don't overdue it, and shave off about 50 calories a day and work it off by exercising until you've made up the difference.
Now, isn't that better than feeling guilty?
Oh, and don't feel bad about pant sizes- you're losing it elsewhere, so
relax. Your face, hands, arms, chest, legs, ankles- many, many parts of
the body are dropping that weight off- be proud of yourself! Eventually,
you WILL see the difference! Today, I had some lady who works at the
grocery store ask my children as well as myself if we had all been
dieting. We smiled and said yes, and she said it showed on all of us! None
of us feel we look any different, but that's because we see ourselves
everyday, so we won't notice the difference right now on ourselves. But,
others do, and that's all the proof you need to know that it's all worth
it in the long run.
Oh, and you still won't see a huge difference
in photos yourself, because you're biased. I bet if you put pictures up of
before and after right now, we could all pick out the areas that you've
lost and see the difference.
Hang in there! I hope you feel better, and stop feeling guilty for being
human! Just make up for it somewhere else, and enjoy the memory of having
someone else cook for you, lol.
Ugh.. Why?
. For a while, I was working out often, but I got frustrated and got off track, so lately I have been working on the 'eating thing' first- and planned to incorporate the gym again next month. Still, I have lost 10.5 pounds or so since getting back on track- which of course, I am proud of. However, I can't say it's not a little frustrating to feel like I look exactly the same and my clothes fit exactly the same (really, they do). So anyway.. back to my point. I know that working out should really get things moving and yadda yadda, I am aware of the logistics behind it all, it just doesn't help how I feel- kwim?
