[irishsarah]

I haven't been off plan this week. I've been down the road, over the hills, behind a BIG tree off plan this week.

I am not even gonna lie. This has been a stressful week and there is candy in the house. I didn't go crazy, but I haven't ignored it either. I baked sweet orange rolls this morning. Another bad move. I made Easter cookies for the boys. Yup, just for the boys, not for me. Noooo sireee... One is just never gonna cut it. I am rapidly discovering that sweet carbs are my "crack". My allergies were so bad, that there was no way I could go to the gym either.

I am NOT looking forward to weigh in tomorrow!

It is almost scary how easy it was to talk myself back into eating like a moron and not exercising worth a d@mn. Oh, I did some exercising with the handweights...while watching Days of Our Lives. I did take the boys swimming on Saturday. So I had to move around then. Oh and there were days that since I ate too many cookies, I would just eat nothing else to save fat and calories.
That is just inexcusable when you KNOW better. I felt like crap from eating nothing of value.
It started out that I just felt awful because of the allergies and progressed into doing what was easy and what tasted good at that very moment.

I am SO mad at myself. I will pick myself back up and move forward, but I don't want to feel like I let myself down like this again. That sucks! No better way to put it. It just sucks! BLAH!

LOL! So there it is. My first official "bad" week. I tell ya' they'd better be few and far between!

[JayEll]

So sorry to hear about this... What's worse, overeating carbohydrates, especially sugar, can actually increase your allergy symptoms. Life Is Not Fair!!!

I hope you do better this week! Hang in there! tomorrow is another day, but today is the one that counts.

Jay

[rockinrobin]

There's no use beating yourself up whatsoever. It won't do a darn thing to change what's done. Because of course what's done - IS done.

The only thing you can do is LEARN from this experience. Remember that eating this way brings you no joy. In fact, in your own words

I felt like crap from eating nothing of value.

Try and remember (though it's DIFFICULT at times) that what you are looking for is long term satisfaction, NOT short term gratification. Long term, not short term. Long term, not short term. LONG TERM, NOT SHORT TERM.

Set yourself up for success and plan the days ahead out really well.

You don't have to have another week where you feel like "crap" ever again. You can turn the tides. Before you know it, that past week will be history and you can be reveling in an "excellent" week.

[irishsarah]

I know. You are all right. I am just so damn mad at myself. It won't be the end of me, oh no. It will take more then that. I am just mad and amazed at how easy it is to "forget" all the information I've learned and go back to mindless eating again.

I say "forget" because I knew damn well what I was doing. I was always rationalizing it in my head. You know the drill:

"Okay, so I ate 3 cookies, I'll just not eat dinner. Okay, I'll just eat a little dinner. Just the protein part..."

Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!

I deserve to see a "+" on the scale tomorrow. Of course, I started using the Alli as soon as I started eating like crap again, so you never know.

I won't give up. This won't do me in. It really was a wake up call. I've always said I was in this for the long hall and that this was not a diet. I expect there to be slip-ups. I just really hope I carry this feeling around for awhile so I don't find it so easy to "slip-up" again.

[DCHound]

I feel you. Having been down that road many, many times...the only thing that works for me is total avoidance. I'm like an alcoholic. I cannot have "just one" anything with sugar or starch. So I have totally given them up. I'll never have another bite of sugar or starch again. I don't know what plan you're on but I continue to be impressed with people who can count calories and budget in room for one cookie, or whatever, have that one, and be normal about it. Because I can't do that. Ergo, low-low carb for me.

[rockinrobin]

Originally Posted by irishsarah

I know. You are all right. I am just so damn mad at myself. It won't be the end of me, oh no. It will take more then that. I am just mad and amazed at how easy it is to "forget" all the information I've learned and go back to mindless eating again.

I say "forget" because I knew damn well what I was doing. I was always rationalizing it in my head. You know the drill:

"Okay, so I ate 3 cookies, I'll just not eat dinner. Okay, I'll just eat a little dinner. Just the protein part..."

Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!

I deserve to see a "+" on the scale tomorrow. Of course, I started using the Alli as soon as I started eating like crap again, so you never know.

I won't give up. This won't do me in. It really was a wake up call. I've always said I was in this for the long hall and that this was not a diet. I expect there to be slip-ups. I just really hope I carry this feeling around for awhile so I don't find it so easy to "slip-up" again.

Giving up? Of course not. That is NOT an option. Into every life some slip-ups WILL fall. Just make sure to make them few and far between, with as little damage as possible and by all means do NOT let them spiral into multiple weeks on end. Period. Ya hear?

The scale will most likely be up. That's not the point or the issue here. You just need to stop beating yourself up - breathe - and plan for the coming days. Eating healthy doesn't happen by accident. Have a plan in place. Map out how you will go about having that good week that you need. Good foods on hand. "Bad" ones far away.

And again, LEARN from this experience. And move on. Move on.

You are in control here. Not the food.

[MandiK]

I'll join the confession thread! I ate 2/3 of a Reester bunny (chocolate bunny filled with reese's PB). My water heater broke yesterday and can't be replaced until tomorrow so I didn't work out because I can't shower... what can you do?

[bunny43]

My two cents if you don't mind.

I try to be 'perfect' in an 'imperfect' world! Sometimes I fall off the wagon miserably, but the fact is....I never ever ever give up, ever. Not an option for me ever. I'll fall, trip and pretty much run amuck, but I pick myself up, brush myself off and try again. What ever I have gained from not following the program, I don't let it get me down. Just keep on keepin' on!

Chin up, you can do it!

Best of luck and will send you positive wishes.

gail

[irishsarah]

Again thanks. A big part of the stress this week was actually about food. We are in a really, really tight budget stretch here this pay period. Actually, the next couple weeks are going to be rough. So I haven't been able to plan like I was (at least not for ME). I had very little food money to work with and I've had to stretch by buying lots of "filler" food. I have to feed the four kids no matter what, so I had to buy many of the foods I've been trying to avoid for the entire family.

White bread instead of whole grain bread.
White rice instead of brown.
Regular noodles instead of the Barilla Plus or whole wheat noodles.
Ground whole turkey (instead of just white meat) instead of...well, ground white meat turkey.

You get the idea. The apples and bananas are being carefully rationed for lunches and the boys breakfast. Most of the veggies are canned. And the snacks for the boys are homemade...and I don't have anything on hand to substitute for me. That is dangerous.

Again, you get the drift. Before I was able to plan to have a healthy filling brunch with lots of protein (that really helps me) and prepare special healthy treats for when the sweet tooth beconds....but right now, every scrap of food is planned for future family use and that is that. As it is, I know there isn't going to be enough. I am not happy with a lot of the processed food in the house and I am doing my best to add a healthful punch to each meal, but right now the focus is on, making sure there is enough food, period.

Things will be back to normal next pay period. Tight (that's a way of life around here) but better.

I hate whining about stuff like that. SIGH. Sorry. I know I am important, my health is important, but I just had to make the dollars stretch as much as possible this time.

That said, I can do better. I can find smarter choices then waiting until I am starving to death and grabbing whatever is in front of me. I know that. My mom gave me a 8 pack (I think its 8) of some WalMart brand "Slim Fast" that she didn't want. (She didn't like the flavour.) That will come in handy for those...GOTTA HAVE SOMETHING, moments.

[DCHound]

If that's your situation, CUT YOURSELF SOME SLACK!!!! It sounds like you are doing what you have to do. You will be back 100% on plan when you get the next paycheck, right? Until then, do what you can but DON'T beat yourself up over small slip-ups.

[kaplods]

Personally, I've never found "feeling bad," about food plan mistakes at all helpful. I'll trust that some people (because they say so) had to get disgusted and mad at themselves to change. I never found that true of myself - oh, it might spur me to start a weight loss plan, but feeling stupid, bad, lazy or crazy only made it really hard for me to feel confident enough to stick with any plan (after all, if I truly was stupid, bad, lazy, or crazy - then what were the chances that I could succeed?)

For me, long-term success started with treating myself as an intelligent, decent, hard-working (when I knew and valued what I was doing), mostly sane and semi-normal person. Losing weight was about pampering my wonderful sense, not punishing the "bad" me - treating myself as my best friend, not worst enemy.

No one expects that learning begin with perfection, except with weight loss. We don't expect to play beautiful music the first time (or even several years after) we would pick up a violin. I firmly believe that, at least for many folks (at least for me), weight loss is a lot more complicated than learning to speak a foreign language or play a musical instrument. There are biological, genetic, social, cultural, and environmental factors that can make weight loss difficult. You don't have to think of yourself as stupid, bad, crazy or lazy in order to make changes - and if it's not necessary, why do it? If you can make weight loss a positive learning experience and not a punishing one, isn't it likely you'll stick with it longer (I sure have found that to be true - I always responded better to teachers who treated me kindly than those who belittled me for mistakes).

So, be your best friend. Learn from mistakes, but there's no reason to flog yourself for them.

[rockinrobin]

I agree with so much what you've said Kaplods - I've even said it right here in this very thread. No use beating yourself up. Learn from this episode..... But,

Originally Posted by kaplods

Personally, I've never found "feeling bad," about food plan mistakes at all helpful. I'll trust that some people (because they say so) had to get disgusted and mad at themselves to change. I never found that true of myself - oh, it might spur me to start a weight loss plan, but feeling stupid, bad, lazy or crazy only made it really hard for me to feel confident enough to stick with any plan.

I think you may have misinterpreted what many folks say. It's not that they felt stupid, bad, lazy, crazy or what have you and that's when they make a change. It's not that they felt disgusted with themselves and mad - but DISGUSTED with being overweight. That they've had enough of "it". That they're disgusted with the limitations that being overweight brings about. And disgusted with their poor quality of life. And disgusted with settling for second best all these years when first is within their reach. And disgusted with not giving themselves the opportunity to be all that they can be. They're disgusted - and they realize that they don't HAVE to live that way. And realizing that, well it's a relief actually. It's not hitting "rock bottom" per se', but it's the realization that you just don't want to live that way anymore - and that you CAN do something about it.

Anyway irishsarah, before I even heard of your situation, I felt you should just breathe, learn and move on - and now even more so, if that makes any sense.

[Jo Kittibuck]

*hugs* You're gonna get through this, you know you are. Just look at that ticker or yours, and see how far you've come already. What an awesome achievement! Don't let the emotions get to you, and don't panic over what the scale says. Just be patient, and focus on being on track from now on, and the weight will go back down.

Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming! What do we do? We swim, swim, swim.

Here's my confession : I haven't been exercising often. About once a week at the most. I've got to work on that!

[harrismm]

I think you are doing great.The economy sucks.Money is tight.Feeding 4 kids is expensive.And as most mommies do, you put their needs first.Sometimes we have to choose the less expensive over the healthier.And I am not sure which plan you are following.But if you are counting calories you can still work these less healthy foods into your plan.Take care.I hope we all see things turn around with our economy.So sad to see lost jobs, foreclosures......

[irishsarah]

I wish I could give each and every one of you a great big HUG!

I am glad to greet the new week and put the past one behind me. Looking back, I realize that I have been stressed so much over something I have so little control over. (the money thing, which is directly connected to the food thing.)

I am doing what I can, with what I got and I will "keep swimming..." along. I am not the first to be in this boat, and I won't be the last.

Mom's don't give up...we just try harder to make everything better!