I remember someone on one of the boards talking about someone they knew who followed their plan PERFECTLY while losing weight but then when they got to goal and had a few treats they didn't know how to handle it and gained it all back. So learning how to deal with special situations and not let them derail you is really part of the journey we are on.
I try not to get too hung up on it, while trying to stay on plan most of the time. I've been pretty darn good the past couple of weeks, but this weekend I am going to visit my son at University (Mom's Weekend, woo hoo!!!) and for one of the nights we are going to have lasagna dinner with all of his friends and their moms. I am not going to sit and pick at a salad, but I am also not going to eat three portions of lasanga! So I imagine that I will be off plan, but that doesn't mean I'll go hog-wild for every meal.
Easter is coming up in a week or so, and my mom makes the best ham gravy ever. So yeah, there will be some gravy goin' on for Windchime! But for the week leading up to Easter, I will be very, very conscious about staying on plan. That's how I try to balance it out. I lose slower than many people here, but I also get gravy occasionally.
I think you made a great decision to enjoy the very special dinner! My philosophy is that I want to stay on plan at all times, and that my plan is going to include regular "treats" that are counted and worked around just like everything else. It's very liberating, and I think it's going to be a heck of a lot more maintainable than treating treats as things that are Wrong. In the last 3 months that I've been On Plan, I've eaten french fries, ice cream, cookies, brownies, restaurant mac and cheese... and I drink beer several times a week! I count them, I exercise regularly to make up for them (and I know I'm not overestimating my exercise calories), and so I celebrate them when I have them. I've been known to IM a friend and tell her I just had a chocolate chip cookie, yay!
Of course, the rest of the time I'm eating very simple, low-cal food, but it doesn't bother me at all since I know I still get to have "fun" stuff on a regular basis.
You handled it well IMHO, actually that was probably THE kind of circumstance when not following a diet plan was worth it: a nice restaurant with delicious, delicate food in honour of your mother. And as you said it, you may very well never eat in that place again; so might as well enjoy it, which it seems to me you did very sensibly.
(I guess it wouldn't be the same thing if it was the greasy-food joint next door with deep-fried junk and other 'foods' that aren't even great to start with, used as an excuse to overeat "just because".)
As long as it doesn't happen every two days and that you 'fall back on your feet' afterwards, things will balance out quickly.
In the meantime, I darn hope you've enjoyed that good food! (Hey, I'm French, of course good food will always be a great thing in my eyes! )
Cammieb- I think you did awesome! You didn't count calories for one meal out lDK 50! I am in awe of you because you WERE ABLE to let you guard down and just enjoy yourself (something I have not accomplished yet). The best thing was that you revised your weekly plan and now you are hitting the gym. WTG missy!!!
Wow, thanks for all the great support. I really did enjoy the food and I am indeed back on track with my exercise and eating. I figure adding 15 minutes to my 3 HILT sessions this week ought to blast away those extra calories, or so I hope.
CakeBatter - Don't worry, it'll come. It took me a very long while to be able to enjoy myself with food. The last couple months, when we would go to restaurants, I would order a small salad, eat the cucumbers and tomatoes, and then just shuffle around the rest for an hour and say I was full. Not a pleasant way of life. Eventually, I think we start feeling confident enough in ourselves to relax around food every once in a while.
I don't count Holidays, birthdays and a few other special occasions into my calories. That doesn't mean I eat everything in sight on those days it just means that I eat like a normal person and enjoy myself like everyone else at said event.
I have eaten like that for the past 15 months and am down 190 pounds for my efforts I would say as long as its not the norm, meaning a special occasion every week and if you are in the right mind set that its just one day that its mostly harmless. when one of these occasions comes up for me I try and do more cardio that week, or eat light the next day but sabotage? nah, we all gotta live right? and special occasions DO happen, its a lifestyle change not a diet, a diet says that you cannot have the occasional treat or large meal a lifestyle change says that you can.
Cammieb, in the future, you'll know you have less to fear from such places than from the corner diner. Whenever we eat out in Manhattan, I've observed that, the better the restaurant, the easier it is to eat healthily. The higher-end places are used to serving people who have their health & appearance on their minds & who are also somewhat spoiled about having things cooked exactly to their specifications. I mean, who's eating there, usually? Actresses, models, socialites & etc. Higher-income women are definitely some of the strictest dieters around. The reverse is true as well, at least in the city: The cheaper the restaurant, the harder it is for me to order well.
