There are times where everything won't come with a calorie count or WW points. I could guess at it. I've been trying to eat mindfully in these cases (work food and buffet). I brought salad to work, ate a salad first before eating the "junk." Didn't get huge bits of the "junk." I am sure I still went over my points. But I still think I did much better than if I wasn't watching what I was eating. A sliver of pie versus a real piece. Leaving leftovers of things I realize I don't like, one portion/serving spoon. Not filling up my plate with junk (at buffet). Not feeling like I'll burst after eating at a buffet (although I still ate a bit more than I should have). I still wanted to enjoy a few favorites of mine (gravy!). I feel like I did good. I know I won't have the best weigh in this week but I'm okay with that. I realize why. I realize I won't be able to eat like this every day and still lose.

Don't naturally thin people eat like this? I feel like I should be beating myself up for this and want to be feeling guilty cause "that wasn't on plan." Am I being too flippant about it? Am I crazy for eating off plan? I feel like if I allow myself to waller in guilt, then I will stay off plan.

I won't pretend to be an expert, because I'm just feeling my way through this stuff myself. If I have to eat somewhere where I don't know the calorie content, I just try to make the best choices I can. I usually estimate the calories afterwards as well, and then try to compensate with the rest of the day/week if it was more than I expected.

I don't drive myself mad over eating off plan though. I mean this is supposed to be for the rest of my life, and there are going to be loads of days where I don't stick to my plan perfectly. I'm learning to let things go, because one slip here and there usually doesn't make much difference compared to the massive change I'm making to my eating habits and lifestyle.

I think part of losing weight is learning how we're going to eat when we get to maintenance. We will always have to eat mindfully, but life won't always be about counting calories or carbs or points or whatever. Experiences like yours, eating at a buffet, is part of this learning process. Maybe you weren't "on plan" but you were learning how to eat in a new way. That is cause for celebration, not a guilt trip.

I went to a get-together on Friday night and there was no way to track what I was eating in the way that I usually do so I approached it as a learning experience. How would I eat at an event like this if I was at goal and maintaining? (Honestly, what I did was to mimic exactly what my food-loving but very skinny niece did. )

To me it sounds like you're doing fine. Smaller portions + not eating as much as you used to + dropping the things you really don't like = success. Keep up the good work, and remember to add lots of fruits and veggies to up your nutritional status and eventually the 'junk' will be less and less appealing. Also remember that even though you may still eat some 'junk', you'll be eating much less as time goes on.

Don't get nutz about seeing weight losses every week, keep track and average out by the month and you'll see that you are, slowly but surely, losing weight and that's where you want to be.

I am trying really hard to get over the guilt of eating. I am trying so hard to make the right choices and have exceeded my expectations and then some trying to get my head in the right place to be successful.

I try to do the same as you, just be more mindful of what and how much I am eating. I do far better now than I ever did before; in the past I never even gave food a second thought, I ate what I wanted and that was that.

And...we "know" if what we are eating is healthy or not. Of course, loading up our plate with someone's homemade lasagna filled with cheese and sausage isn't going to be half as healthy as the garden salad and crudite that we could load up our plates with. And just because we can't look up the salad dressing and/or veggie dip, we still know it doesn't give us the right to dive into the lasagna!

I hope you aren't too hard on yourself. Eating right is tough enough, we don't need it to be even more hard.

Daimere, I'm in a similar place to you right now. I have also eaten "off plan" a bit over the last few weeks and I have been maintaining (or possibly gaining a bit), but then I step back and realize that this isn't just a quick diet for me. I was talking about it with my consultant yesterday afternoon and she agreed... She said, "You're in it for the full transformation." Ah ha! That's it! And for me- part of the transformation is navigating how my body reacts to different foods and learning how to lose/maintain while still living life.

So I don't feel guilty about it. Besides, for me- I'd be terrified approaching maintenance if I wasn't already dabbling in it. This is important for my mental health.

So I guess I'm saying...I'm not on plan. I'm just on life.

The only way I can stay "on plan" is if my plan is flexible enough to deal with situations where I don't know the counts, or a day where I need a break from counting or I'm going to kill someone. I don't feel guilty. Even a thousand extra calories one evening doesn't throw my weekly average that much over my goal, so long as the other days are low. (I know, I have an seriously-over-calorie-day at least once a month.) I'm a firm believer in the 80-20 rule. So long as I'm fairly strict 80% of the time, I have the flexibility to eat off-plan once in a while.

So no guilt, and move on.

I think you had a good approach to your situation and there is absolutely no need to feel guilty.

You make the best choices you can at the time and move on.