I feel awful. My belly hurts. I've spent the better part of several hours eating crap. And yesterday was bad too. *sigh* Has anyone actually gotten over the desire to stuff their faces with crap? Ever? ARGH. I've been doing well but for the most part really just white knuckling it everyday that I am good. Ugh, I hate this. Why can't I just be normal and eat when I'm hungry?

At 113 lbs, you have come a long way. You had enough strength and willpower to lose 40 lbs, and should not forget that. If we always had the willpower we would like to have all of the time, none of us would be here. For you, it should no longer be about thinking you have to spend every day on a diet...just about maintenence. So you had a sudden urge to stuff your face with deliscious crap. So what? You're being too hard on yourself, hon. It takes 3500 calories to gain 1 lb of fat, and it takes ALOT of food to consume that much in a day. And even if you did gain back 1 lb, you are still not going to wake up back at 153 and have to start all over again. Give yourself a break.

Dude, I so feel you. I thought I had mostly gotten over me binge-starve-overexercise-just-to-maintain phase...but this week I've gone 2,000 cals/about 0.5lb over, just because..yeh, I stuffed my face with crap!

But its been awhile since I've done that and I hope I won't again..I think it was stress more than anything. I've gotta be more vigilant again I guess.

TT is right...don't be hard on yourself!

emily
xxx

It's ok! You are normal!

Look at all the weight you've lost! You're doing great!

We all have "off" days. People who have reached their goals and maintained for years have "off" days.

I know it's hard to just eat when you're hungry. I'm learning not to eat when I'm bored, stressed or frustrated. Or just because there's good food available, e.g. someone bringing in food to work, a friend or family member offering me something I don't need, etc.

When ever I eat crap, I crave more and then I feel sick--just like you.

This morning, DD was having a bagel for breakfast. Darn it smelled good! But I knew that if I ate it, it would set me up for a whole day of bad eating.

Don't punish yourself for the past. Just get back with it and get on program. You'll feel better soon enough.

goinforthegold I ate a lot of a big gift chocolate bar. today and now have a headache and feel nauseous. Will be back on track tomorrow. And so it goes for all of us. I have lost only 9 lbs in as many months. You have lost 40! Hey! You're eating a whole lot of good food with a "crap" day now and again. Just keep the good days outnumbering the crap ones and you'll be fine.

No one (except teenage boys) can ever eat all they want to and not gain weight. We are genetically programmed to eat when we have opportunity. And there is food everywhere. We jsut have to learn to say no more of the time, not ALWAYS

Dagmar (was that the fat fairy?)

To answer your question:
Has anyone actually gotten over the desire to stuff their faces with crap?
I can only answer for me, and the answer is I constantly have to work at NOT stuffing my face with crap.

We all have those days (or weeks). Sometimes I am in the zone, where I can do no wrong, I love what I'm eating, staying in my calorie range is easy, and I think I've got this thing licked. But those days only last so long and then I find myself right where you are now. It's a struggle to get through the day on plan and I'll sometimes have several days where I just can't manage it. I've definitely had days where I just eat and eat, even though I'm not hungry. It usually happens on days when I have to be off-plan for at least one meal due to circumstances I can't control, but not always. It's like I can only be good for so long and then I snap, have a few off-plan days, and then get back on plan again. So don't beat yourself up. You'll get through this and get back on plan.

I think what's bothering me the most is my thinking. I'm starting to hear my thoughts slip back into my pre-program stage and it scares the living daylights out of me. A few years ago I lost 30lbs in just a few months but put it all back on again b/c I went right back to the same eating patterns and I can very conciously tell the difference in my own head when I'm doing well and when I'm not. You know those days that you say ah, WTH, one ice cream won't hurt or WTH today's a right off I'll do better tomorrow, with tomorrow never actually coming.

For the past several months I've just not even thought about eating junk, it was actually easy. I didn't want to b/c it took too much energy to work the junk off. But, my brain just isn't thinking that way anymore now, it's like a switch was flicked or something and I don't know how to unswitch it....for about the past month I'm just barely holding on and white knuckling it every day. I'm really scared of putting it all back on again and wish I could figure out how to stop feeling this way.

Sometimes I go into a slump like that if I've spent too long without a certain food, like a donut or a Starbucks drink I like. Maybe you haven't been allowing yourself enough treats or off days?

Or maybe you've become bored if you've been eating the same foods over and over? Maybe if you try a new food or a new recipe it will help.

That's definitely a trap that I fall into sometimes. I'll think "how much can a scoop of cashews really hurt" or "I can have a handful of chocolate covered espresso beans, how many calories can they really have."

One thing that helps me put the brakes on is to force myself to calculate how many calories I'm really eating. And to write it down in my food journal. There's a part of me truly thinks that food that I don't write down doesn't have any calories; if I write it down, it becomes real and it puts me back in control. I recently had some high quality bittersweet chocolate in the house that I was using for baking. As I was using it, I was thinking I would just eat a few pieces (it was really good chocolate and I didn't need the whole bar). But before I ate them, though, I forced myself to check how many calories were in them. Beside being totally shocked, it really brought me back down to earth and I realized I really just didn't want to consume that many calories.

Another thing that has helped me in the past when I've been having trouble with getting or staying on plan is to be accountable to someone else. I have a personal trainer and when I'm trying to get back on plan, sometimes I'll report to him what I am eating. Knowing I have to tell someone about all the crap I'm eating is a big motivator. It could be anyone; a friend, family member, posting here at 3FC. I did the same thing recently with chocolate covered espresso beans. I decided that I needed to give them up, so I started reporting whether or not I was eating them in the featherweights planning chat. And the other night I was thinking, oh I'll just have a couple of espresso beans, but then I realized that if I did, I was going to have to announce in the planning thread that I had broken the embargo and I really didn't want to have to do that. It was enough to keep me out of the jar. I used the same strategy to keep myself from scarfing Halloween candy last year.

Thank goodness for this thread tonight...I spent the ENTIRE day eating junk that isn't On Plan...and I was feeling bummed about it. I've had a three days on, one--two days off pattern for the last few weeks and I'm driving myself crazy. I miss the Zone, where it's so easy... Thanks for this thread, it lets me know I'm not alone...and also that I really need to get myself out of this head space. I want to return to college at the beginning of September in the 140s! I can't do that if I continually tread water.

I had an hour of very, very concentrated junk food eating yesterday afternoon.

Let me know if you've heard this one before . . . I'm really bored, have to work all weekend, DH just announced that I'll have to live with his misery for ANOTHER YEAR, and I'm going to be all alone in a house with pets all weekend. If I just get a small bag of chips it'll be ok.

Big bag of chips, large brownie with gobs of icing, a bunch of digestive cookies with regular margarine, and one big gob of peanut butter later - BLECH!

I am using some of the same techniques as Barbara - accountability here and writing it all down in my diet journal - but neither option was available yesterday. I made sure of that because I also "believe" that if you don't write it down and (how weird is this) if I eat it at a client's house it "doesn't count".

But I'm back on track today. That's the difference with having 3FC . In the past I would have just continued blowing the diet all weekend. Now I can come here and vent and get back OP.

Dagmar

Dagmar - Be strong today. We all do that from time to time (at least I do). I know you'll get back on program today!

I catch myself doing stuff like that all the time. Part of me is 100% convinced that food I grow myself doesn't have any calories, especially if I eat it while standing in the garden. It's a good thing I can't grow ice cream and brownies.