OK so here is the situation...
I got off work yesterday morning at 7am , I worked the previous night 7p-7a in which my calorie intake was 850. I came home and took a nap from 9a-noon. I was busy all day after I woke up, rode several horses, took the kids to swim (did laps myself), worked in the barn cleaning, and cleaned the house. I didn't eat all day, I honestly forgot to, I personally didn't think that was possible but I did. I fed the kids several times throughout the day but never ate myself. Later that evening around 8:30 when I realized I was starving, I ate a sandwich (whole wheat bread, turkey, swiss, lettuce,tomatoe, 1tbs mustard) and chips (kettle cooked pot.) maybe 2 servings worth, along with a very, very small slice of cheesecake (my mother made a homemade one and left a small slice for me, and when I say small I mean tiny lol.) This was all I had yesterday, but I feel like I cheated for eating it... I know this is deffinatly not ideal, but was it bad enough to consider it cheating?

Where do you see the cheating? In the cheesecake? Unless you are on a strict no-cheesecake diet, then I don't see any reason to see a small piece as cheating.

There's no necessary reason to label all sweets and treats 'bad' and then to feel guilty about eating them. It's counterproductive.

I'm going to give you an answer you don't want to hear.

Sometimes, when I'm well within my calories and I have cheesecake, even if it falls under my daily limit, I feel like I cheated. But sometimes I take a whole day off and enjoy the cheesecake, trusting that my body knows what to do with it and trusting that I will be okay and I don't feel like I cheated.

Your diet may be different. I am a big fan of indulging in moderation and trusting that your body will take care of it and not make you gain 10 pounds overnight. Which it won't, so by my book, you're totally fine!

I'n not really on a no sweets diet, because I really don't like or eat sweets often and when I do it's in super moderation... I guess I've just been sticking to my diet so strictly the whole meal seemed bad to me. It's the first meal I've eaten in a long while that wasn't super healthy.... Thanks for y'alls input

(I don't like the language of 'cheating' and a girl should be able to have a little cheesecake from time to time without having to feel guilty about it! However, it is a poor use of your calorie allowance and perhaps a reminder that forgetting to eat all day can lead to poor choices when you finally notice the hunger. )

it's only cheating if you consider it cheating.

I had a tablespoon worth of cheesecake into 1/4 cup of ice cream on a plain cone, and as I am under calories for the day, i did not worry. I do get into the mindset you are in, but I have taught myself to not sweat it especially when I am under calories/under fat intake for the day. If cheating means you will "fall off the wagon" then you might view it as cheating, but I cannot see wherein you cheated, eating normally is less emotional stress for some of us

What is your program? If it's simple calorie counting, then it wouldn't be cheating as long as your calories were within your limits. But if it's just a haphazard program of kinda sorta guessing what you're eating and when, then that can leave you feeling insecure and as though you "did something wrong."

I do better when I eat at regular intervals. You say you "forgot" to eat, but you fed the kids, so how did that work? In my opinion, it's not a good pattern to get into--not eating, then finding you're starving. So, try to remember to space your foods throughout the day, so that you aren't as likely to find yourself eating things you think you shouldn't because you're so hungry.

Jay

I don't think you *should* feel like you cheated, but I understand why you do. When we eat healthy for so many days in a row, those little indulgences - even though they fit within our plan (I'm a calorie counter) - still feel like a cheat. I experienced this on Sunday when I had a 100 calorie chocolate pudding, even though I was below my normal calories for the day. It just tastes so good it has to be bad!

Turkey sandwiches, I can tell you, are NOT bad on a diet. They're actually quite healthy, so you should feel fine about that. And there's no way you went over your limit for the day since that was your only meal. (I don't know much about those kinds of chips, so I can't comment on them.) Don't beat yourself up about it. If you feel bad about anything, it should be the fact that you forgot to feed yourself all day! But I'm not a mommy, so my life is decidedly less hectic. I'd have to be REALLY busy to forget a meal. Try to schedule meal times for you, at least. Skipping meals can sometimes make us feel like we "deserve" a treat because, hey, we haven't eaten all day! And that's a slippery slope.