Today I started out with the absolutely best of intentions.. planned my meals to the "T" and everything but I blew it. I went against my plan at work by eating a cinnamon roll I didn't need. Then I went to the store with my son and got an eggroll AND a fried blackberry pie. It got so much worse from there.. I'm so disgusted with myself. Not to mention the fact that I worked my tail off at the gym Mon, Tues, and yesterday just to undo it all in one binge filled day.. Sometimes I feel so compulsive.. like I have no control. I'm up eight pounds..back in the 140's and I'm feeling really miserable.

What was your eating plan for today?

It went like this..
Breakfast: Slim Fast Optima Bar
Mid-morning snack: Dole fruit cup
Lunch: Veggie Lasagna, low-fat yogurt
mid-afternoon snack: 1 serving Strawberries w/ Splenda, 1 tbls peanut butter
Dinner: Baked BBQ Chicken Breast, green beans, baked potato w/ lite sour cream, salad w/ low-fat ranch

First of all...it happens. In the last two days i started my period and consumed somewhere between 3 and 4 boxes of pudding (fat/sugar free, but still)/
1. Let it go. It's done, you worked your butt off at the gym so it's not as bad as if you hadn't exercised at all.
Next, maybe you need to have a bigger breakfast that will keep you sated longer? Oatmeal? oatmeal with a banana?
Perhaps bars work for you and this is an anomoly but I find that bars taste too much like candy and get me craving snacky candy crappy type food.
If I start my day off with oatmeal and a banana it doesn't make me crave chocolate for example.
But don't beat yourself up about it. I seriously ate over a pound of pudding.
I choose to blame my period and I know it's not going to happen again...this month

The reason I was asking is because, if you're feeling like you're depriving yourself and not actually enjoying what you're eating for meals... it's more likely that you'll end up binging or going off plan. Of course cinnamon rolls are tasty.. but maybe if you're craving a cinnamon roll for breakfast instead you can make a slice of peanut butter toast with cinnamon and a sprinkle of powdered sugar on it. Or some yummy cinnamon flavored oatmeal.

Instead of an eggroll, what about getting a tortilla or half a pita and filling it up with some roasted chicken, and peppers/onion/alfalfa sprouts/any other vegetable. Then instead of blueberry pie, take a lowfat graham cracker, and some cinnamon and crunch it up over some frozen blueberries and put them in the microwave or oven for a little while so they get warm and gooey like pie.

There are so many ways you can make healthy versions of the food that you used to love. Plus, you know that you're giving yourself something healthy and good for you.

I know it's hard, especially when you're out and about... but keep some healthy and YUMMY snacks in your purse that you can eat if you're feeling like you want something else.

It's okay to change your plan, as long as you're replacing it with something good for you. Planning is always good... but don't feel bad if you're just not in the mood for something.

Good luck, babe.

Lovelypurple - those are good suggestions for substitutes! They sound tasty...I'm gonna have to try those sometime!

I find when I eat the meal replacement bars, I start craving sweet/salty food. It's like the proccesing center in my brain gets ready to digest sweet food and when it doesn't recieve truly sweet food, my body goes insane until I give it to it. So, for me, if I was to try and replace a meal with a bar/shake, I would need to supplement with something else naturally sweey, apples, blueberries etc. Also, if you check out the slim fast site, they tell you those shakes and bars aren't to replace a meal, its in addition to a small meal or snack. How many calories are in that thing? Or grams of protien? It doesn't sound like much to hold you over. What is your daily caloric intake, not just the goal, but how much are you truly taking in? Judging from what you showed us, it looks like the bulk of your calories come in from lunch on out. Maybe try and spread it out a bit. Oh, what I found out tonight? Most of us know by now, a serving of chicken is 3-4 ounces, I weighed a chicken breast before cooking it, boneless and skinless, this thing weighed an entire POUND. HOLY SCHMOLY!! Thats enough chicken for 4 servings!!! Thankfully, I always shred one chicken breasts and my family of 4 shares it, but I was wondering what it weighed. So, if you ate 1 breasts for dinner, that was 4 servings of protien at one sitting, in chicken alone. If you split that up and have a serving with your breakfast, a serving in each snack, you've spread out your protien through the day and hopefully, that would help you feel more full. Another thing to consider, think outside the box, so what if a whole wheat pita or tortilla wrapped around 3-4 ounces of shredded chicken breasts with a slive of avacado, some tomato and sprouts isn't normally considered breakfast food? It's healthy, filling and best of all, helps control hunger during the day. Good luck!

Thank you all for your support.. hence "support" thread.. lol. I know today was bad, and inevitably there will be a few more, but it helps to hear positive messages from others who know all too well how I'm feeling. I know it's not the end of the world, I just wish I knew WHY I overeat the way I do. I've tried questioning myself "Why are you eating this? You're not hungry!" and I punch that little voice all the way to the back of my brain until I no longer hear it, I ignore it. Bad idea I guess.. I guess I just eat it b/c I want it. The instant gratification of eating something that tempts me.. only to be left feeling with the guilt of screwing up. In any case, tomorrow is a new day, and I've already shot down my hubby's suggestion of eating at a buffet tomorrow night so that's a start!

Alora~tomorrow is a new day. Don't dwell on past mistakes. Take tomorrow and make it better than today was.

I'm still trying to lose the 8 pounds that popped up between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I worked all month January to no avail. Finally I am seeing a decrease and I hope to have it all gone by Easter (see the Easter challenge). We all have downfalls, the key is picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and convincing yourself that you are strong and CAN DO IT. We all know you can, you have to know it for yourself.

Maybe try cutting back on the calories for your lunch and dinner so that you can more and bigger snacks throughout the day. For example, instead of having your yogurt with your lunch, save it for a snack later. If you want to have more with your lunch, you could have a green salad or carrots or another veggie instead. I will often times have a pickle with my lunch, not because I need the extra food or am hungry, but just because I like to have at least two different foods to eat and the pickle accomplishes this while adding minimal calories.

If you are eating a lot of pre-packaged foods, it might help to try to work more fresh foods into your day. I find that frozen meals and pre-packaged foods often leave me unsatisfied, making it hard to stick to my plan. For example, fresh fruit would probably be more filling and satisfying than the Dole fruit cup, which, if I remember correctly, are tiny. An apple or banana would be just as easy as the fruit cup.

When I first starting counting calories, I went through a lot of trial an error trying to figure out how to portion out my food during the day and what foods would keep me satisfied. I now know that I have to leave room for at least two afternoon snacks and one after dinner snack, although in a pinch, I can get through the morning without a snack. Sometimes it just takes a while to figure out what will work for you.

The hardest thing to overcome is the "I blew it - so I might as well eat until I can't eat any more and start over tomorrow - or maybe even next Monday."

And it's funny, because I'm not sure we do it with anything else. "Oh darn, I overslept, I'm a worthless person, now I might as well just sleep until next Monday"

Hey, I'm going to be five minutes late for work again today, I'm just going to stay home today, or maybe until Monday, or maybe I should just quit this job and try again in a few weeks.

I'm finally trying something new, and it's really helping. I think of the two examples above or something similar to help me stop the cycle, reminding myself that one poor choice is just that one poor choice. It doesn't have to become a binge-fest. I'm really trying to journal rationally by writing not only what I ate, but why I think I ate it. And if it's a choice I want to beat myself up over, I have to write something positive about that choice, and a better choice that might have met the same need/desire.

Dieting and losing weight are extremely difficult. You often have to fight your physiology, your habits and even your belief system, family upbringing and society itself at times. We need to approach it as the difficult task it is, and be proud of every victory and nonchalant about every failure. This is my new theory anyway. I think we tend to think of weight loss as a simple task that any moron should be able to accomplish easily. Then every stumble seems like a major failure.

How many calories does that whole day's plan come out to? How many of those calories are at dinner?

It could be that you're not eating enough in the early part of the day to sustain your needs. If I ate one of those bars and a fruit cup as my only food in the morning, I'd definitely want to eat more! Plus it sounds like not much protein there, and too much simple carbohydrate.

Keep track of what you eat and the calories, even when you "blow it"--write down that pie and everything else and add them all up. This is called "accountability" and it helps me offset the tendency to just ignore the days when I've gone over. I'd rather pretend they didn't happen! But if I have to write it all down (or track it in FitDay) it really does help me make choices.

Good luck! It does get easier as you stay with it.

Jay

I'm in with the protein. Have some with each little meal.
As for the replacement bars ... they can be a valuable tool, but I'd rather you ate a 'real' breakfast and then save the bar for an evening snack.