So my boyfriend got me tickets to see my favorite band in Philadelphia so we got a hotel and stayed the weekend and I decided to make those two days cheat days. Now I am on a low carb diet and allow myself one cheat day a month roughly, but i really went overboard this time..... I usually feel very afraid of bread and starch when I have my cheat days but then it turns into over doing it pretty fast.

I started on the trip down with some crackers and cheese as a snack, ok no big deal...then when we got there I went out to some fun restaurant and I LOVE trying new places to eat. So I got two apps, coconut curry muscles with thai basil and home made BREAD! also some pork belly and sweet potato empanadas with some veggie cilantro slaw....oh my god I felt so bloated and horrible after that....then I drank lots of beer. Next day I carbed up again with biscuits and gravy for breakfast and a half of a fried shrimp po boy at a new orleans style restaurant with more beer and duck fat pop corn for dinner...then went to the Franklin Fountain and had a big ice cream sunday. I FELT LIKE SUCH GARBAGE. It honestly crippled me for the entire rest of the night....I still have not eaten today because I feel like a brick is living inside my belly So glad to get back on plan.

Just wanted to rant, I feel like it's bitter sweet. I look forward to my carb days but in reality I never end up enjoying them. The sweets seem too sweet and the bread seems too heavy for my stomach to handle. Maybe next time i'll take it easy. I realized that I haven't felt this way since i started low carb back in mid October and I don't miss it.

I spend tons of time wondering how I'll spend my cheat day. (Usually its just a meal at some particular restaurant where I dont count any of my calories and order whatever I want for that one meal) Honestly, I spend all month waiting for that day to arrive, then I feel like total crap afterward. My body feels like crap and my mentally feels like crap. I don't know how to change it, because I still wind up waiting for the next cheat day! One month its a pizza place, one a steak and fries deal, the next a fully loaded Japanese dinner with tons of rice and shrimp sauce. Doesnt matter how much I love those foods though, I feel like garbo after I do it

Sometimes it feels good to rant!

I'm with you though. I've found cheat days or meals just make me feel horrible and sometimes even ruin my night cause I feel so awful. I'm way more focused on feeling good right now so I try to not go overboard with it.

I used to do "cheat days". I don't anymore because they caused me a bunch of problems. First is that yes, I felt like crap after eating crap. Second, I usually ate what I shouldn't, so my craving for the problem food took longer to go away again...and thirdly, it put me in a mindset that eating 6 days of healthy food should be rewarded by a full day of excess alcohol, sugar and fat. I now eat healthy every day with calorie allowances for things I really like, including cheese, wine and chocolate.

I am very strict with cheat days, but it's a personal thing.

I save them only for special occassions. A night in front of the TV does not cut if for a cheat day for me. Or out for fast food.

But seeing my favorite band in Philadelphia and staying at a hotel would.

I wouldn't sweat it at all. In fact, that's not really a cheat day. That's just real life when every now and again reality gets in the way of your diet and for good reason!

You don't get fat eating off plan at hotel band nights in Philadelphia. You get fat on what you eat the other 363 days of the year at home and at work. They are the places you should not cheat.

Of course you feel bad, you forgot to eat a cheesesteak! Get thyself back to Philly and eat one of those and then you'll feel a lot better I promise.

Lol ok just kidding, just making light of it. Don't be so hard on yourself. It doesn't do any good to look back. Tomorrow is a new day, eat lightly and have a big salad for lunch and you'll feel like yourself again in no time.

I'm sorry the food made you feel unwell, I hope the concert was fun at least. I don't do low carb myself, but I totally get what you're saying about what was supposed to be a special meal turning into a disappointment. Feel better soon, skintoskincombat!

I never do "cheat days". I may not even WANT to "cheat" on the days I've planned on cheating. And it doesn't keep you from cheating on days that you didn't plan. Most of the time, I eat on plan and so that on the days I have something off plan, it's not a big deal and I just go back to eating on plan.

Actually it's just eating but just not the way that I used to "just eat".

Sometimes I don't go for cheat days because the unhappiness afterwards outweighs the happiness of the cheat - takes away the point. Instead, I just do "clean" carb refuels - like sweet potatoes, Ekekiel bread, fitmom oatmeal (it actually has nutrients unlike Quaker or something lol)

I don't restrict myself of anything so in my world there's no such thing as cheat meals but I do feel bad if I go overboard on portions. I do however avoid obvious crap like McDonalds and such.

Don't fret, we all go on an eating frenzy from time to time.

I'm also low carb, so I totally feel you. We ate at a friend's last night, and I felt like I was high on something after three bites of stuffed potato. Get back on plan, and the crappy feeling will go away. I'm with Ian. That's life. You had fun. Usually after fun we end up paying the piper somehow.