Quote:
Originally Posted by EricaBG
Alright. I went out to Dairy Queen and got one of them Peanut Buster Parfaits. My god it was delicious but by the last spoonful I felt all of that guilt rushing back. Now I feel upset because I did this to myself. I hate that I do this. I'll be eating well for a week or so then I'll go and have a massive ice cream treat for desert that has 700 calories in it. And I also had steak for dinner which did not help much either. I'm so frustrated with myself because this is what caused all the weight gain.
|
Hope you don't mind me jumping in with my $.02, but your post really struck a chord with me since I have been thinking about the issue you present at length lately. Firstly, I highly doubt that a little calorie slip-up once a week caused a significant weight gain. Perhaps it was the little slip-up that caused a calorie avalanche over a period of time?
I am only saying this b/c I know that in the past this is what usually happened with me!
I think you should go ahead and treat yourself once a week; after a while you may find that you are choosing healthier, lower calorie options of whatever previously forbidden food you were craving simply because it is no longer forbidden. Or you can work the extra calories into your plan. For example, at Dairy Queen (which, I admit, I haven't been to in forever simply because I don't like to eat at fast food restaurants, but I'll go when invited) if I am really craving ice cream and have been good with my food and exercise for the past week or longer, I will treat myself to a small or large vanilla soft serve, either with or without the cone, no toppings b/c I simply don't like them. I like the unadulterated taste of the ice cream without all of the extra sugar. Incidentally, when I was growing up, plain vanilla and chocolate soft serve from the local ice cream stand on the side of the road once or twice each summer was all we were allowed. I would read all of the exotic flavors on the board, but they were too expensive for my parents to afford to buy one for all 10 of us. My parents would rather spend their money at the farmers market on organic veggies and fruit and at whole foods (fresh fields back then) than on ice cream, which I agree with today. I never minded, and in retrospect I am glad that we couldn't afford higher calorie foods and spent our grocery money wisely. Those exotic sounding ice cream flavors and combos don't really sound that exotic or appealing to me today...they just sound really sugary and gross!
I figure that the 200-400 extra calories this costs me once every few months, or even once a week in your case, are not going to hamper my weight loss efforts, and so far they haven't. I know a lot of people like the sugar free, fat free versions of foods, but I have always found them to be tasteless and unsatisfying. If I feel like I have worked hard and deserve a treat, I want the real thing...but in its simplest form and a small quantity of it. Why should I eat something that I don't even like, especially if it's not giving me much in the way of nutrients? Just b/c the label says it's a certain food doesn't mean it is...I let my taste buds do the judging, especially in this day and age of over processed, artificial, lab-made foods. Of course, I know that some people are required by their medical conditions to eat a low sugar or low fat diet, but if you're not one of those people then by all means you should let yourself have a real treat from time to time. And don't beat yourself up about it later!
One of the things we have to learn before we can be successful at maintaining our weight loss or even to lose the weight in the first place is that we need to learn how to live in the real world, in our own lives, at a healthy weight for our individual body. This means that liquid diets and prepackaged meals probably are not a good way to go, unless you can keep it up for life. Those things may work for some people; I just don't know any of them.
I apologize if I come across as a little preachy; I just wanted you to know that you don't have to be perfect all the time to lose weight. I certainly am not. In fact, I had 3 small ginger snap cookies tonight. And much worse than that, I have tried and failed many times in the past at losing weight. I just know this time is different because my mindset has totally changed for the better and I am not letting anything get in my way of what I want anymore...and I really want to get in shape. And it's been working so far. I also haven't been as hard on myself for not being 100% perfect in my eating. I barely ever track my calories, although by this point I know the calories in every natural food known to man (not so much the restaurant food, as I don't eat out due to my "selective" tastebuds
) by now due to "dieting" off and on for years. And I'm only 25! There's that, and the fact that I'm a habitual label reader. So I usually do know the estimate of how many calories I'm ingesting on a daily basis, but I am not being obsessive about tracking that number. I am much more concerned with counting my servings of veggies and fruits and making sure I get plenty of whole foods in my diet. It works for me, but some people need more structure and accountablity, which there's nothing wrong with.
The important thing is that you enjoy life, and find a way to lose weight that you can stick with long after the weight is gone (of course, you can add back some calories by that point!). I have learned that being consistent, not perfect, and getting right back on the weight loss wagon immediately after every slip-up are the 2 most important things that have helped me lose 15 lbs. so far. Oh, there's also that pesky little eating less and moving more strategy, which I have slowly grown accustomed to since it actually works!
I wish you luck in your journey.