Today at my job we celebrated my co workers birthday. And they had chips, cake, and soda. And I ended up eating a bunch of doritoes, one slice of cake, and 2 small cups of soda. And then I have this obsession with weighing myself, so I went on the scale and it said that I was 217 when this morning I was 215!!! I feel like I have no control and that I'll never reach my goal.

If you weighed yourself after drinking a gallon of water you'd see an 8 pound gain.
what do you think you might do going forward from this? and the next time there's cake and stuff at the office?

I have no idea. My birthday is in two weeks, so the same thing is going to be happening. Maybe I should eat an apple first or something to make me full.

Early in one of my weight loss journeys, I decided to do a "get to know the way the scale reacts to my body" week, and I weighed CONSTANTLY. You will not have gained 2 pounds (7000 calorie surplus!) from eating the food you described. But it seems consistent for pretty much everyone that their lowest weight is in the morning.

It's a setback. They're part of this lifelong process. For other people, "cheat" meals or days are part of the plan. Weight loss does not require perfection. Just finish your day on plan, and stay on plan the rest of the week. Then, try to figure out why you made a decision that was not consistent with your goals. Lots of strategies for saying no. Find the one that works for you. And accept you won't be perfect, and will never be required to be perfect to make this plan work for you.

Great job on getting down to 215. You may have a little water weight from the sodium tomorrow, but assuming your calories are within reason for the day, I doubt you'll see any long-term uptick on the scale.

You have no idea? ok, well you have 2 weeks to come up with a plan.

what is your diet plan? are you counting calories? so, you figure out how many calories are in the cake, how many are in a serving of chips or whatever and maybe you decide to have diet soda in stead of regular.

Instead of an apple, which is a lot of sugar, make sure to have protein filled lunch and breakfast (not restricting those) and then a small slice of cake, some soda and a little ice cream.

If you look up calorie count estimations now, you'll realize that a small piece of cake doesn't have thousands of calories, nor do a handful of Doritoes.

Do some research now so you can confidently plan to celebrate your birthday with no stress about food, and can make the celebration the focal point instead of the food.

Put the scale away. All it is going to do is let you get you more aggravated with yourself. Why weigh - for reinforcement that you made choices that didn't support your long term goals? You already know that. Would you be as aggravated if you drank several glasses of water and weighed yourself - again showing the increase? Head games. You indulged. You enjoyed? Now what? Get in extra veggies and water and keep on keepin' on. Life happens while we work to lose weight - celebrations, tragedies, etc. Develop your plan to deal with most of them, if not all - easier said than done, but we can either beat ourselves up over it, or learn from it - maybe next time you just enjoy a small slice of cake ... whatever you can work in successfully - or abstain from it all. But don't harangue yourself over this. You wouldn't tell a friend to go weigh herself right then, so don't do that to yourself. You're not going to transform that food into fat that quickly

Thanks sea girl and LaurieDawn. I think theres something wrong with my scale, because I got on it twice and it said 217.0 exactly and then the next 2 times it went up .2. I stopped getting on when it said 217.8. I also asked my mom to hide the scale until next friday so I can hopefully stop obsessing.

I've tried counting calories, but I always tend to mess up because I don't know how much a serving of cherries are or how many calories are in certain fruits.

Thanks I know I should keep on. It's just bothering me that it happened.

There are a number of websites that offer this information for foods that aren't packaged - or even library books that have the info so you get a base knowledge. Even something as simple as www.calorieking.com has the fresh fruits (plug in cherries - 5 cal/cherry or 87 cal/cup). When you start planning out your meals (KEY!) this is invaluable. You have to have a plan or repeated actions that don't support your choices become easier and easier to make, and then you're right back to where you started.

Get out a tape measure and take your measurements... jot those down, note how your clothes are fitting, and go from there. You won't get the immediate YAY from a quick drop that you might see on a scale, but there is no sick feeling from an unexpected gain on the scale, either. And our body is what everyone else sees - not a number stuck on your rump No one can see in my arteries, including myself, so that's harder for me to picture ... ha!

What would you be feeling if you hopped on the scale and it showed a drop of a pound after your gathering? (Just devil's advocating...) Would you feel like - whew, dodged a bullet there? ... Or would it still mess with your mind? Is it the indulgence or the scale pop? Both?

As seagirl said, plan now for your birthday, yet remember it's a birthDAY, not a birthweek (as I often celebrate and then struggle to get back into control) ...

you need to use a food scale, measuring cups, etc. If you are still living at home with your mom, ask her for help. You could also visit a nutritionist, they are usually covered through health insurance, to get some meal plans to help you.

not knowing how many calories are in things and hoping to lose weight is like buying stuff at a store with no price tags and no one tells you what they cost. they just take the money out of your account and you have to hope for the best. that's not a way to manage money or your weight.

If I did loose, I would probably think I dodged the bullet. But I'm going to start planning for my birthday now. Especially since my job isn't going to be the only one with a cake. My family is probably going to being home this huge Carvel cake with a cup full of chocolate crunches on the side. Then I'm REALLY going to struggle.

If enjoying a slice of that is important to you, work it into your plan. You'll need to figure out how many calories you need to average on a daily basis (www.livestrong.com can calculate an average number based on your weight, height, age, activity level) and then work with that. Don't go drastically under it because you'll need to lower your calories as you lose weight and then you'll be stuck when you can't go lower. So be mindful of that.

Then figure out how many calories in a serving of that cake:
http://www.carvel.com/pdf/nutrition/english.pdf ... but make sure the serving is the right amount, not just ANY size slice of cake

Send the leftovers home with someone else - enjoy your day and if you can work it out, you won't be beating yourself up later that night or the next day.

You CAN do this - but believe in your ability to do some research and find what you need from reputable websites, simple tools around the house (measuring cups/tape measure), and following through on what you set as goals for yourself. Imagine how strong you're going to feel in a few weeks when you've successfully navigated celebratory meals and kicked 'em!

Thanks for the advice!!!