I have an awful "all or nothing attitude." If I eat something substantially "bad" then I say screw it to exercise later.

Example: I just had a huge Dairy Queen Blizzard after I already hit my calorie limit for the day, so I feel like there's no point in burning calories with cardio exercise later. (I know, I know)

If I eat good throughout the whole day, then I love doing cardio and I feel like it's being super effective.

Someone help me get out of this ridiculous mindset!!

GAH, No!!!!

If you trip on the stairs do you throw yourself down the whole flight??? Or do you brush yourself off and keep climbing? I didn't say that, some other smart board member did... but it holds true!!!

Get back up and keep on trucking!

Snap out of it, that's nonsensical!

More seriously, Val is right. Do you slash all the tires when you get a flat in one? Or worse, never drive again? No. You deal with it and keep on going. So it is with exercise. Exercise is for fitness, not weight loss. Your fitness hasn't become less important just because your eating is off, right? Keep the issues seperate in your head, and you'll benefit greatly.

If you have a little blip and you don't work out afterward, all that means is you are making yet another mistake. If you overeat by, say, 300 calories and then you go walking and burn like 150 - I'm guessing here - that's half of that gone. Add in a little extra the next day or cut a few calories or both and you can average the two out perfectly fine. If you never start, if you never try, this journey of yours is gonna be extremely rocky and unpleasant. =/

What everybody else said!

I ate pasta, pesto and cheese earlier and I was feeling super sorry for myself the last 2 days (TOM - bad cramps) anyway and not doing much exercise. I was craving bad (worse) food after the pasta. Super craving, I wanted cake so bad. I somehow picked myself up and did a Zumba thing from youtube and 20 minutes on the stepper and I feel tonnes better. The reason I did it was because I knew I'd wake up tomorrow feeling terrible and annoyed with myself for not doing anything/eating crap. Push on and then push on some more

Agree with everyone xD

I think you come up with some fitness goals to keep yourself motivated at times like that. Running goals/lifting/cycling anything...Exercise is more about fitness rather then weight loss anyways.

I've been all or nothing my entire life. Helps me through a TON 70% of the time. Then when it comes to the final laps-messes me up. For example, the LSAT. I do great the first few sections, final section, if it has hard questions BOOM I ruin an otherwise perfect test (sadly a true story...)
I'm working on not being too much like that-accepting what I did and just doing something positive, even if the day didn't go so well. Its slow and I can't know the secret to it, but I just try to remain calm and work on it.

I'm definitely the opposite. If I have a bad day I will work out extra and try to work in more movement (doing chores, walking the dog more than usual, etc.) I figured if I burn enough calories, I'm still technically on plan! I don't go crazy or anything, but it's the only way I won' be off track for days...

I used to think exactly as you do, and that's why I was never able to really see exercising as a lifelong habit. I always connected it with "being good" in terms of eating.

This time around, though, I have tried to keep the two separate. I try to view exercise as a daily habit. So, regardless of what I eat, it has no effect on whether I exercise or not. So, to reiterate . . .

This is exactly how I think and it's what got me into being EXTREMELY overweight. I kept ruining my day everyday (even sometimes by an additional 100 cal only) and then I'd make excuses to not exercise and to keep eating junk and soon enough I was huge.
You could still potentially burn that blizzard off, how amazing would that be?

When I blow it, my goal is to work out harder and longer.

It doesn't matter if you fall down 100 times, as long as you get back up for try number 101. The sooner the better. That I'll start over on Monday thing is the wrong answer! A little slip doesn't have to turn into a binge-fest. Keep calm and carry on.

it's actually the exact opposite: i find my workouts *rock* after i've calorically blown it.

I'm another one who tries to make the effort to exercise if I've blown my calorie budget for the day. I feel like I've at least been good in one area then and it might help undo a bit of the calorie damage I've just inflicted upon myself.

Won't repeat all the above, but just to say watch out for early signs of working out to "punish" or "redeem" yourself for a calorie lapse, as that can quickly become a whole new disorder. These are two separate things, one goal is to eat this way, one goal is to exercise that way. They need to be uncoupled in your head, even though they do relate to each other. Let's draw a ludicrous comparison here: If your goal is to drink 8 glasses of water a day and you don't manage it, do you give up going to the toilet becuase you aren't going to pee enough? They are two related things but they don't depend on each other.

HA! I love this and am going to have to use it myself!

As for my answer to this, YES! Go work out, even if it is just a walk. I "blow" it sometimes or have no energy to exercise but I do, repeating over and over "Even the tiniest bit of effort is better than no effort at all!"