Slight bump in the road resulting in a small victory
 

Today is day 10 of being binge-free. I have gone months and months in the past without slipping off plan. But the last few months have been very stressful with lots of major life changes. There are never excuses, but my routine was turned upsidedown, and that led to a few weeks of binges. I was getting to the red zone in my maintenance range, and it was time to get back on the pony.

I have been very pleased with myself over these last few days. I've stuck to my plan and have resisted some of the usual temptations. My weight was going back down to my comfort zone. BUT, those sneaky feelings of itching for a binge were creeping up on me. Justifications like "I've been sooo good...I can have a treat" and "my weight is back down, it won't hurt to have a cheat day."

I'd like to say that I snubbed my nose at my inner gluttonous devil completely, but I stumbled a bit. I bought a donut whilst out grocery shopping (I don't even LIKE donuts...it was just there so I felt like I needed to eat it), and had three cornbread muffins with dinner tonight after I had only planned one. I also had a beer, lol. So several hundred calories over what I had planned for the day, but fortunately, I had planned very light for the day and I probably ate right at maintenance or not much over (about 1700ish). Kind of a bummer, and I am kind of annoyed with myself that I gave in yet again.

BUT, here's the happy part of the story. I have the worst all-or-nothing attitude ever. In the past, if I have even two or three unplanned bites, I'd throw my hands in the air and say "all is lost for the day" and proceed to binge. Instead of being over my planned calories by a few hundred at most, I turn that into being over by a few thousand. Well today, I was thinking "all is lost," but I wiped the thought out of my head. I feel full. I do not want to eat anymore. I don't want to binge, I simply have no desire to. I don't feel like it.

So yes, I had a booboo today. Ate some unplanned things, but didn't go overboard. But I personally feel that the victory of my full tummy and also my logic saying "no" to the binge-zombie is a MUCH bigger deal than the booboo. :)

A few unplanned calories is nothing. Triumphing over binges -- that's amazing. Congrats! :)

Congrats! I get that "all is lost" feeling too... in fact, I'm sitting in a meeting with a plate of coffee shop brownies. One of my classmates offered me 1/4 of her brownie and I ate it. Probably put me 100-150 over my goal for the day, and I was starting to get that feeling. But YOUR post has convinced me to stay away. :-) I'm going to have some tea instead and stay the course!

OooO so awesome!!! I do the SAME thing with the binge-y behaviors. You're on to something here, with the concept of just accepting that you ate a few things that were past your calories, and letting it be. It doesn't have to turn into a "failure-fest" that involves 1,000+ calories.

Keep it goin! :)

Yep, I can relate to your story sooo well mkendrick...the "ah, now I've REALLY blown it, I'm gonna eat 5 candy bars" feeling. Glad to hear you cut it off before it turned into a snowballing mess. All progress is good progress!

LLBoldasLove, your determination is so strong! I would have eaten like all the brownies. I just can't be around them in a "please take one" setting!

Congratulations! I completly understand how your "slip-up" was more of a victory.

I too and trying to learn how to get right back on plan after taking a little detour. In the past if I ate one "wrong" bite I would throw in the towel and go nuts. I am slooooooowly learning how to jump right back in the fight.

Last night my husband took me out to dinner and I made great choices, didn't overeat and then went right back on my plan for the rest of the evening. I was so amazed that a dinner out didn't trigger a whole night of eating. I felt very in control and very happy. It finally felt normal and ok to eat out.

I not only went a few hundred calories over my allotment last night, i ate some bread for the 1st time in 3 months (a BIG trigger food for me) and really didn't struggle with letting this turn into a bingefest as I used to always do. I actually sat in the restaurant thinking about how many calories I had for the day and that if I stopped at that # (estimated app.400 over my maintenance level) I wouldN't do much damage -I did check out the desserts but put the brakes on and feel great today - right back on plan. I have to admit - it felt great to eat like a "normal" person just this once and I think I can do it from time to time -last night was special and I'm still celebrating my control.- Just felt like sharing -L.