[lifehouseluver]

Hi Guys,

Soooo last night was my one year anniversary with my boyfriend, so he took me out to the Melting Pot for dinner. For those of you who don't know, the melting pot is a fondue restaurant. It's phenomenal, but it's really easy to go calorie crazy... which i totally did, and it was totally worth it.

I knew I was going to blow it going into it, but I feel like I planned accordingly to the best of my ability. Before we went out, I ran for 30 minutes at 6.2 mph, so I burned 330 calories. I use my fitness pal, and my goal is set to 1 lb per week. By dinner, I still had 730 calories to use, however I believe my dinner was at least 1400 calories (LOLOLOLOLOLOL)

I had:

-At least 1/2 of the cheese pot (dipping bread into it)
-4 glasses of Sangria wine
-the "land & sea" dinner plate (believe it or not - only like, 350 calories! and that was the main dish!)
-Dark chocolate fondue (dipping some brownies, and some strawberries into it).

By dessert, I was STUFFED so I don't even think I ate 25% of the plate. I'm pretty sure the sangria alone ruined the 700 calories I had left for the day though. Bahaha!

I've been dieting for almost 2 weeks, so I truly think my stomach has become more sensitive to being full like that. I felt so ill last night and into this morning, that I couldn't even eat breakfast!

We had a lovely time, and it was SOOO delicious. I guess what I wanted to say after all this rambling was that usually, when I "blow it" after one meal on a diet, I approach it like "I failed - better luck next time." BUT I got right back on track today, and to feel less guilty i'm going to go workout in a minute!!! In the past, I have been such an "all or nothing" dieter, and i'm really trying to not do that this time.

Does anyone else have like, an "all or nothing" approach or have had experience with having an "all or nothing approach"? How do you handle it? I'm glad I got over it today, but I just hope it lasts for the rest of the week/month! Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[Candeka]

The all or nothing approach is why I failed to lose weight before! I last like a week before I give up because my diet was to strict and I was hating life. Now however, I eat all of the "bad" things that I ate before like ice cream, chocolate and pizza. The only difference is I plan it ahead and keep my calories between 1300-1600 a day. And guess what? I am losing weight! I've also been able to keep this up for about a month not and am not even closed to giving up. I don't feel like I am on a 'diet' or anything. I just feel like I'm eating how normal people without food addictions eat lol!

Good job for planning ahead! The restaurant sounds yummy!

[Nadya]

I used to have that mentality and it was so detrimental to my progress. It accounted for half a dozen+ failed "diets" until I realized that I couldn't go on thinking that way.

Another thing I would suggest to you or at least suggest that you consider is not calling this a "diet". Making permanent lifestyle changes helps a lot more than a diet does, IMO. For example, I don't drink soda anymore. It's not part of my "diet", I'm not on one. Instead, it's part of my life. I just don't drink it. I don't even crave it anymore. It started with forcing myself to reach for water instead of soda and now I just do it habitually. If I slip up a little, it's easier to control. Like I had cookies the last two days. They came in packs of two and I bought two packs of them. I didn't eat one entire pack, I ended up throwing one cookie away both times. I didn't even have to force it, it just felt natural to only nibble and then pitch the rest out.

The word "diet" is such an evil one to me.

[Alicia87]

Yes I know exactly what you mean!! I used to have that mentality. I'd go into it and be like, "okay, I'm going to lose weight and exercise every day and only eat healthy foods" and after 2 days I'd eat pizza and quit.

Now I know better. It's very simply unrealistic for me to think I'm only ever going to eat healthy foods because I *love* lots of UNhealthy foods lol. Now it is definitely possible for me to make better choices a lot of the time and to still eat the foods that are not as good for me. I keep to my calorie count and if that means that all I ate was junk that day but kept within my calorie count than that's okay.

All-or-nothing doesn't work for me because I get too quickly frustrated and just give up. Calorie counting and planning for things (just like you did yesterday!!) are what works for me. I can still eat the foods I love but am losing weight

[sontaikle]

I used to have an all or nothing approach too. I can't really explain what got me to suddenly stop, but I think it's when I sat down and realized that: hey, skinny people eat fast food, pizza, etc. and they stay skinny...so why can't I do that?

So I taught myself about calories and portion sizes. Throughout my weight loss I would have the occasional pizza or fast food meal. I steadily lost weight to get down to where I am now and I plan to continue this in maintenance.

I said it in another thread, but you can take my pizza away from me when I'm dead. I love that stuff too much to give it up entirely.

[lifehouseluver]

Thanks for the help guys.

I know I shouldn't call it a "diet" but I feel like I want to call it a diet until i've stuck to it for at least a month. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I feel like the way i'm eating doesn't feel like a lifestyle just yet. I still have the "how am I supposed to do this for the rest of my life?" thoughts running through my head, but then I try to get a grip and i'm like, "in maintenance mode, as long as I am strict during the week, I can have fun on the weekends!" I'm also hoping that after a month of this, it really does start feeling more like a lifestyle.

Yeah my splurge on Saturday night felt HEAVENLY. You really do appreciate yummy fatty food so much more. haha I figured that i'll be perfect on the weekends when I can be, but if there is a special occasion, i'll arrange my calories as best as I can to splurge.

Thank you for the sharing/help guys!

[Riestrella]

Well done you! I've been on this forum now for quite a while, and I've seen many threads saying "I ate too much, I failed" and it's so disheartening to hear!

Life will happen, anniversary's and birthdays will come around where you CELEBRATE and perhaps that means eating and drinking cr@p! I would much rather have a great relaxed meal than think I have to count all the calories that are in everything. In fact, I never actually ask or look at the nutrition, I just buy what I love. And here I am, 42 lbs down, I don't think I failed anything!