Okay, we all have an occasional bad day with eating and how it affects us. Sometimes we go through stretches of lots of bad days. They get more and more frustrating as they go on, too. At least they do for me.

So, pick one day that you've had in the last two weeks, and try to figure out what went wrong. Why?

Now spin it to the positive...what did you learn in that experience that can be a benefit the next time you experience this?

Finally, say one uplifting thing about yourself to get today off on the right foot.

I've learned that bad days happen.

I've learned that it is only REALLY bad when you don't get back on the wagon and let a bad day turn into a bad week or a bad month.

But, bad days happen to everybody. It isn't rational to expect 100% perfection or 100% control, 100% of the time.

Also, I've learned that writing all the "bad" down... it usually doesn't look so "bad" or terrible in print.

I've actually had almost 2 weeks of bad days. I have to say the urge to eat junk food is strong when you aren't following your usual routine. I've been spending a lot of time at the hospital. Its so easy to order Junk food, most places will deliver right to the waiting room (just please don't ask how many... I can probably name most of them. Friday night was the most difficult. That was the day dad was the worst. We had 32 people show up to support us. So they all pitched in for takeout (Chinese) from my favorite place. We had 3 pupu platters, 2 orders of pork fried rice, steamed dumplings, sweet and sour shrimp.. and so on. I think I had a little of everything.

What did I learn from it....

Well by about 2 am I had learned my lesson. I had the worst headache from the msg, tummy ache from the fried food. I felt horrible. So Saturday, I got up, drank extra water, exercised and then went to the hospital. My Aunt made a batch of chicken salad and brought some whole wheat rolls (she used ff mayo).So that was definitely an improvement. We hit the salad bar a couple of times, and brought different healthy snacks to eat as well.

I found that the days I made myself exercise, made myself drink water not soda or coffee, and made myself get some nutritious food, I was much better equiped to handle the stress of the situation. Tomorrow is my day off, and will be spending a good portion of it at the hospital, and I will exercise, I will eat well, and I will drink my water. That way I will be in a better place so I can be stronger for my dad.

Laurie

Pick one day that you've had in the last two weeks, and try to figure out what went wrong. Why? Last week was tough for me - see the confession post from a few days back. Basically I was having a hard time limiting myself to one serving of dessert. As to why,I was definitely hungrier thanks to my new meds but hungrier doesn't need to mean sweets!

Now spin it to the positive...what did you learn in that experience that can be a benefit the next time you experience this? That even if my body is saying it's hungry after dinner, I don't need to reach for more dessert, a piece of fruit will work.

Finally, say one uplifting thing about yourself to get today off on the right foot. I'm back on track this week and feeling much better - the combination of getting back into my routine at the gym has made all the difference in the world.

Yesterday we had pear cake with ice cream for dessert. Well, my daughter Anna didn't want any cake and ice cream, so instead of taking hers and putting it back in the freezer, I ate the ice cream.

Looking back I should have put it back in the ice cream container, I felt very full the rest of the night.

So, pick one day that you've had in the last two weeks, and try to figure out what went wrong. Why?
I could pick every day but I'll narrow it down to yesterday. DD and I went to a concert, we ate fairly well for breakfast/lunch but ran short on time pre-concert so we ate at Arby's. I think on all days it has been a lack of planning and laziness on my part.

Now spin it to the positive...what did you learn in that experience that can be a benefit the next time you experience this?
I know that afterward I felt very bloated and did not like the # on the scale, I used to use overeating as a reason to keep doing it...now I find I am much more conscious of what is going in, even if it is high cal/fat and make more of an effort to get back to nutrition as soon as possible.

Finally, say one uplifting thing about yourself to get today off on the right foot.
I am going to accept myself for the person I am right now, today, and will take steps each and every day to respect my body and my mind, nurture myself, and take care of myself through nutrition and meditation and positive thoughts and words.
Jill

I had a horrible day last week. I woke up in the morning craving pizza and anything greasy that I could get my hands on. My friend ahad made a great suggestion of ordernig a smaller pizza and then just having 1 slice and making a side salad.

Well, it was a great idea but I ended up eating a small pizza ( I threw away the last piece), a small poutine (french fries, gravy and cheese) and 2 cans of coke.

Reflecting back on the day, I am realizing that it seems when I am alone, or at least only with the 1 year old at home (who can not tattle on me) I feel this overwhelming urge to eat pizza.

What I am in the process of trying to figure out is what need does pizza fulfill in this situation and how can I obtain the same feeling without eating the pizza, poutine and coke. I have not come up with much yet.

In the mean time I am planning to have the makings for homemade pizza in the house to satisfy these cravings as them come up. Luckily I almost always have a house full of children to keep me in line.

One uplifting thing: I have been watching what I have been eating since then and have been seeing the rewards on the scale. Very encouraging!

Weekends tend to be not-so-pretty-good for me. I tend to be closer to the kitchen, and without the structure of the work day, I don't make plans the way I should. So I need to be more proactive in planning activities to get us all out of the house, or at least out of the kitchen!

quote:

Originally posted by cobismom:

I did learn that months away from burgers on the run, can make you not like them.

You know, that is pretty much true. I grabbed a McD's burger with DS one day. I was sick of chicken, and thought it sounded good. First, it didn't taste that great and second, I felt horrible after eating it. I still like really "good" burgers, like at home on the grill or in a full-service restaurant ("slow food" as DS calls it.), but the FF burgers for me just aren't worth it anymore.

For those of you that do want a FF fix from time to time, I can highly recommend the Chick-fil-A grilled chicken sandwiches. They are so good, I dont' even put mayo or honey mustard on them.

Dawn

A bad day? WOW, which one to choose from in the last two weeks...

This weekend was bad! We all had very busy schedules, and I failed to plan to eat alone on F, S and Sun. So Friday I grabbed burgers, Saturday, the gals ordered in pizza, and Sunday, I just gave up and didn't eat. Monday morning I had to kick myself into gear to make up the menus and post them on the board. Now it's a matter of getting out of the not so hot food to something a lot greener and more healthy.

I did learn that months away from burgers on the run, can make you not like them.

I don't think of food in terms of good and bad. I had a heavier (calorie and fat) lunch yesterday than planned, but I balanced it out by having salad and fruit for dinner.

I have to get out of the good/bad, all or nothing mind set. I can't think in terms of days, I have to think in terms of my next snack or meal. If I eat more calories at one meal, then I will lighten up the next one. Otherwise, I do end up with days, weeks, months or even years of not eating well.

I think in the 12 step programs they talk about taking one day at a time, but I think I've learned with healthy eating you have to take it one bite at a time. Just because you take a bite of something that you didn't intend to eat, doesn't mean you even have to finish what ever that is. For example, last week I took a brownie at work. I was prepared to fit it into my day. However, I took one bite and then realized, it really didn't taste all that great. So, into the trash can it went. Before I would have eaten the whole brownie. Last week I said "This isn't worth the calories."

Dawn

We decided to and order Chinese food for dinner. I ended up with entire meal, rather than doing what I really wanted--soup and dumplings.

I will avoid this by sticking to my orginal plan when going out or ordering.

My negative: one really nasty binge later in the evening after dinner. I wasn't really hungry, but finally figured out that my body was screaming for some protein (in the form of meat) because I had only had a piece of cheese all day. Everything else that I ate was good stuff, but I neglected the meat part of my diet.

How to avoid it in the future: Eat at least one meat meal at some point in the day, so that I can avoid this situation again. I also will keep frozen meatballs handy so that if I need meat in a pinch, I can just defrost one or two.

One uplifting thing: I got in a good workout for each of the three days surrounding the binge, and upped my weights this morning.