What do you do after you've blown it?
 

My kids had friends over yesterday, so we made oatmeal cookies. Today I ate about 5. Needless to say that was NOT on my plan. I put the rest of them down the garbage disposal. I'm not feeling too guilty, brushed myself off and got OP. Just because there's a bump in the road doesn't mean you drive the car off the cliff, ya know?

Anyway, wondering what you do when you blow your plan. Do you try to compensate the rest of the day? Skip dinner? Eat a green salad instead of whatever you had planned? Do extra exercise? Or do you just pick up where you left off, and go on like it never happened?

I try to stop for a second and think about WHY I did it ~ was I actually hungry and it was the easiest thing? More likely is I have the mind of a spoiled child and if I see something my 1st reaction is "I want to go there" (lol if any '30 Rock' fans!). Most times I can beat that snotty little brat back, but sometimes she wins. I figure, as long as I'm moving forward and acknowledging the bumps on the road, I'll be ok. It's only when I hit bump after bump and pretended nothing was wrong that I got into biiiiig trouble ;)

In terms of "compensating" the rest of the day, it depends for me on what the rest of my plan for the day looks like and how far off I went.

If I can make my calories a bit lower for the day by cutting out an afternoon snack, I'll plan to do that. Or I can eliminate my dessert, or eliminate a starch with my dinner, etc.

I won't skip a meal or replace a meal with something that isn't filling (like a salad), because for me, that triggers overeating later.

I try to pick up where I left off and really try to find out why I did it in the first place. I do count in into my day and it kind of forces me to face what I did. I wouldn't recommend starving yourself for the rest of the day....that will only set you up to fall again.

I exercise a lot as it is and don't think I'd want to fit more of it in ;)

Before I use to just binge and throw away the rest of my day. But now I'd move things around and try to make room for it. It's okay if I go a little bit over my calories (1800 max) I will just head to the gym.

I don't think I would compensate by eating less....I think you did the right thing by getting back on plan and getting rid of the temptation. since you can't "uneat" something I would probably make up for it with exercise...calories in, calories out...right?

I used to just throw in the towel and keep eating for the rest of the day. Now I journal. Sometimes multiple times. I try to get to the root of why I did what I did. Like others, if I can shuffle a few things around for the remainder of the day I do. If I end up over calories by more than 200 I try to lower them a bit for the next few days creating an unplanned calorie cycle.

To be honest what I do historically is beat myself up about it to the point where I blow it over and over again for an extended period of time. Needless to say that has not served me very well and I am really trying to stop that nonsense. Lately what I do is stop and think before and then decide how many of something (usual culprit: tortilla chips) then have them then literally tell myself IN WRITING it's perfectly OK to have had them, nothing to be guilty about, time to move on.

LOL. That sounds so crazy but I find after a lifetime of yoyo dieting and a fair amount of self-hatred over same that a little self-forgiveness goes a long way! We fat girls are so good at beating ourselves up.

I have totally had a oatmeal cookie meltdown - last month actually- in fact, it was January 12. I know that because in my little food journal, that day is titled, "Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Debacle". How I dealt with it? After I made myself stop, I gave the rest away, estimated how many calories I really went over (which honestly wasn't that many, so I'm glad I looked back at it instead of just deciding I'd ruined everything), went for a run (after I let the cookies settle), wrote it down and moved on with the next day.

I'm proud of you for getting rid of the rest of them.

I think binges would be so much funnier if we always referred to them as "debacles"......:lol:

Since losing weight THIS TIME lol... I've never blown it. Period.

However how I USED to deal with it was to say screw it... and eat the whole house.

Hence the fact that I weighed 376 when I started this.

Hence the fact that I don't do that anymore ;) I CAN'T and stay on plan. However... if I did. I would just log the calories, move on and deal.

Today was my "blown it day". I can't tell you specifically on what...just that I nibbled ALL day. How am I dealing with it? I am going to make bottles, take some cold medicine, go to bed, hope like all **** that I don't have to get up too often with the baby and start over tomorrow. I think I need to start counting calories, that will help. I was just OVERtired, feeling like death warmed over and I was soothing myself with food. It wasn't really fattening food, just too much of it.

So, that's it. Like someone said, I can't un-eat it, so I will just have to live with it and learn.

This isn't a "diet" anyway. Its my life. There will be good days and bad.

I agree, a debacle has a cheerful ring to it. Like something you'd see on a sitcom.


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Seriously though, I removed "I blew it," from my personal vocabulary. After eating off plan, big or small, in the past I would use it as an excuse to continue to binge until the next morning, or if the binge occured later in the week than Thursday, I'd eat nonstop, barely pausing to sleep or go to the bathroom until Monday, ensuring that I really indeed did drive off the cliff.

Yesterday, I had a debacle of my own. Instead of ordering one of the many low-carb and low cal dishes on the menu at our favorite thai restaurant, I had a noodle dish. I can't really move on and pretend it didn't happen, because high carb dishes like noodles tend to make my very hungry for the rest of the day, so I knew that while I hadn't blown it, I had complicated the rest of my day, and I would have to be vigilant. Grocery shopping immediately after lunch, I was tempted by Philadelphia brand's new keylime cheesecake filling in a tub (how absolutely and insanely what I should not be eating). I tried to find a way to justify buying it (I even tried to use the "I've blown it defense," but it doesn't work the same way now that I see driving off the cliff for what it is). In the end, I was able to talk myself out of it. There's no way I would have used appropriate portion control on that stuff.

For me, getting on the scale as soon after a slip as possible helps me get back on track. I don't know why, but I think it's a throwback to the past. In the old days I'd eat like mad the rest of the day (or week) and the binge would end when I weighed myself the following (or following Monday) morning. So, for me, the scale works as a restart button of sorts.

Yesterday, I tried not to let the slip adversely affect my choices, but I wasn't entirely successful. I was hungrier because of those darned noodles, so I didn't skip or even cut back on dinner. I did try very hard, mostly with success, to make decent choices the rest of the evening (I didn't do very well with diet sodas, I far exceeded my normal intake - but they were distraction I think from the cravings. I kept going to the fridge wanting something to eat, and I'd end up leaving with another half glass of diet soda.

Not ideal, but definitely not a tragedy.