hey guys,
I've been doing pretty well with exercise and eating healthily, although I can't track my progress as I haven't got access to any scales. However, I've slipped up, as I went out and drank ALOT yesterday and have spent today eating unhealthy foods to nurse my hangover! Usually when I slip up I give up, but I'm trying not to this time as I've got the support of you lot!
Can you guys share any stories about slipping up and not giving up to help me be motivated to carry on? Thankyou!
Jo

Hi, Jo!

A slip-up is just that-a SLIP! It is just one point in time. None of us gained 100 pounds because of just ONE slip up! We DID gain 100 pounds because we KEPT ON slipping up day after day after day!

I think that losing weight requires patience and also a belief in yourself that you CAN lose weight. Without patience we tend to just think we can lose 100 pounds overnight. When we don't lose lots of weight in a week, we give up. No wonder we don't lose weight!

Without a belief in ourselves, we don't really believe that we are worth it. We never care enough about ourselves to really put ourself on the front burner and GET GOING on our weight loss!

Make a list of all the reasons YOU KNOW that you really ARE worth it! Keep the list handy, because it will really help you get back on the wagon after a slip-up.

Cheryl

Hi Jo,

A diet has a beginning and an end. A healthy lifestyle is forever. None of us are perfect and we all have had and will have times when we overindulge and make unhealthy choices. This doesnt mean that all of your prior hard work and efforts are null and void and it doesnt mean that you cant put it behind you and get on with your healthy lifestyle. Its just a bump in your road and not a total wipeout! Put your chin up and keep going!

I have been faithfully recording calories since 11/15 most days I aim for 2000-2100 unless I work out alot

11/17 - 2 days in I went to a party determined to only eat a little bit of healthy stuff and I just wasnt ready to handle a party. estimate 2000 calories at the party, 3600 for the day

11/23-thanksgivin 2800, nuff said

12/14 - cookie party- this time I am prepared...or not 1900 cals at party, 3300 for day..clearly parties are an issue for me

12/18 xmas shopping, planned meals badly, got too hungry, ended up with bad choices. no binges, just bad choices. 2600 cals

12/25 xmas, decided not to count, then counted afterwards 3100 cals

12/30 cookie binge before bed 2800 for the day

12/31 nye full out binge mode 3860, 2300 of them between dinner and 1 am

As you can see, I still have some issues with parties...but between 11/15 and now I picked myself up every single day. 20.4 lbs are gone.

I gave in to the lure of boxed macaroni and cheese about a week ago because I didn't want to cook one evening. I felt awful physically afterward - bloated, stomachachey, headachey - the body really gets used to good foods once you get started! But I didn't berate myself; just called it a lesson learned, and moved on. Slip-ups happen. Just as you didn't gain it all overnight, you won't lose it all overnight, and you won't gain it all back overnight either.

You're strong, you'll recover from this little slip and be back on-track in no time!

Well . . . when this happens to me, I don't say that I "slip up," which makes it sound like an accident. I say that I "chose to overeat." Because unless someone is holding me down and putting the food into my mouth, I made the choice.

When I make an unfortunate choice, the only thing to do is to make a better choice the next day. I've been through ups and downs enough to see that if I just throw in the towel, the weight comes right back on again. For me, ignoring it just isn't going to be an option.

So, renew your commitment! No reason to go "off the rails" because of a heavy drinking night.

Jay

I'm exactly like you and have failed every diet I've ever gone on because when I've fallen off the wagon I've stayed off in the belief I've ruined it all. This day last week I had a major blow out, came back here and got straight back on. I even managed to move my tracker in the right direction at the end of the week!

Cheryl 14 is absolutely right - none of us got overweight because we went wrong on one day only. Welcome back

Thanks you guys! I would have given up as soon as I overate usually, but instead today i went out and ran around the lake, just one day won't ruin everything!
Ennay - you party problem made me laugh, I'm the same but it's the alcohol at parties instead of the food! Well done for not giving up even after all those times, and still losing 20 pounds! I'm impressed, if you can do it then I can!
Thanks to everyone else too, I'm back on track!
Jo

My own personal slip-up story from the weekend.

I've got an icky knee at the moment and had to have a tetanus shot in the arm on Saturday morning. I usually find weekends a struggle foodwise and being stuck in the hospital for an hour on a Saturday morning certainly didn't help my mood.

After I'd been prodded and poked and squeezed DH and I got some lunch, at an italian cafe. I had a huge ciabatta with mozzerella and salami. Granted we didn't have a dessert, but all those carbs and fat certainly didn't make me feel healthy. About halfway through the afternoon we shared a twix, then we went to our friend's house for movie night. We were starved and he offered us some gingerbread men and there were choccies out on the counter so I had about 1.5 gingerbread men and about 4 chocs. Then the chinese arrived! I had lemon chicken, special fried rice, fried veggies, crispy seaweed, beef and half a spring roll! THEN I had carrot cake - 2 pieces!

On Sunday I thought I'd be ok and we were ever so tired, so between breakfast and lunch we slept! Brekky and lunch were both reasonably healthy, but then I baked scones (with healthy rye flour and cranberries!) and we shared the batch! We had pizza for tea and I had a fizzy grape-juice drink in the evening (full sugar) and chocolate coated cookies and various snacks of chocolate, grapes and cherries throughout the day!

I woke up this morning and thought it would be a better day. I had cereal for breakfast as a treat. I KNOW I can't eat cereal without being starving later on. Same thing happened today. I skipped my 2nd meal of the day since I didn't want a protein shake. I had a huge jacket potato with cottage cheese for lunch, but since I went to the supermarket instead of the gym I ate 6 fig newtons and a chocolate bar as well as lunch

So I've had a BIG slip up! And I've decided that as much as I feel sorry for myself and would like to go home and curl up under my duvet life goes on and the small children still need to be taught kickboxing tonight, which means I have to stop feeling like cwap and to do that I need to look after myself and not eat any more fig newtons - perhaps even top up with a protein shake before I go out. And I KNOW that even though my head would really like to finish off the bars of chocolate that are in the fridge, my body won't thank me for it, and neither will my head once the chocolate's finished.

So I'm picking myself off, dusting myself off, drinking plenty of water, making sure I have plenty of fruit for snacks later and I'll be back to the healthy lifestyle tomorrow. After all I have a belt test, a 10k run, a school reunion and a wedding to go to in the next two months. None of which will be pleasant if I give in to the binge monster for a moment longer.

thanks for sharing that, 2frustrated, made me feel less alone in this!
and reddalice, loved your fairy thing, made me laugh loads too! feeling so much better with the help from you lot.
i've also noticied that loads of people go running and never say anything about it, i see people i know out and about that i never thought did exercise! so i don't feel like such an idiot running around campus.

I try and think about "slip-ups" as if they were some non-food aspect of my life. Such as: if I get in a big fight with my husband, I don't just say "Screw it, we fought today, might as well give up and get a divorce" you just work through it and make it better the next day. Or if i'm walking down the street and there is ice and I slip and fall down, I don't just lay there until I die, I pick myself up, and keep going. Now why shouldn't i do the same with food, just see a binge/hi cal day as a part of living, and continue as normal with my healthy lifestyle...anyway, rambling now, hope this makes sense.

I had a minor slip-up yesterday as well - pretty much attacked a bag of corn chips while playing computer games... it was unsalted, stone-ground corn (and 16% dietary fiber per serving), but I'm pretty sure I ate 2-3x the 15 chips/serving count (about 300-500 calories) ~ kinda struggling today but I plan on buying some on-sale dumbbells during my lunch break, so hopefully the feeling of accomplishment (from progression of weights) will get my into my exercising groove tonight.

Dear,

Food should not be one of our vices. We seek food for nourishment. In fact, let good food be your best friend and let your comfort foods, whatever they may be, be the friends that occasionally come around. The more you restrict yourself from seeing your distant friends, the more you would want to see them. So don't feel bad, just let it be... sit back, relax... watch the lbs melt. !