Read the Beck Diet Book - very good mental techniques

Anonymous wrote:You have to eat food you like- in moderation if it’s not very nutritious and high in calories. Don’t give the General that much power over you by naming it as a splurge or something that’s forbidden. Next time eat half and take the rest home for another meal. And just skip the spring roll. It’s making good, consistent choices that you can live with that counts. And not letting one so-called splurge bleed into the next meal. By that I mean, don’t keep splurging, but don’t punish yourself trying to make it up, either. Just keep going and making healthy choices.

But, honestly, even eating a half entree of General Tso's has a caloric load that most dieters can't afford. A half portion would be more than half my day's allotted calories. And then doing that again in the next day or so with the remaining half. I used to do things like this and I would just not lose weight and yet feel like I was dieting.
Personally I have found I do better when I just say there's some things I just can't have. I don't try to wrangle the General into compliance, I just cancel him.

You have to eat food you like- in moderation if it’s not very nutritious and high in calories. Don’t give the General that much power over you by naming it as a splurge or something that’s forbidden. Next time eat half and take the rest home for another meal. And just skip the spring roll. It’s making good, consistent choices that you can live with that counts. And not letting one so-called splurge bleed into the next meal. By that I mean, don’t keep splurging, but don’t punish yourself trying to make it up, either. Just keep going and making healthy choices.

Look at it on a weekly basis, one cheat day can be made up over the other 6.

It’s quite easy to consume 1500-2000 more calories than you should, so don’t beat yourself up and get back to paying attention

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I eat more one day, I just eat less and move more the next day. It all evens out in the end.

The problem is it's not hard at all to eat an extra 2000 calories in a splurge (1 order of General Tso's plus some caramels will do it!) but it is hard to take out/burn an extra 2000 calories the next day. Especially when you are already trying to restrict calories so there's not a lot of wiggle room. (That's kind of the reason why so many of us are overweight/obese!)

I would find it impossible to eat that much more. Maybe 500 more tops.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I eat more one day, I just eat less and move more the next day. It all evens out in the end.

The problem is it's not hard at all to eat an extra 2000 calories in a splurge (1 order of General Tso's plus some caramels will do it!) but it is hard to take out/burn an extra 2000 calories the next day. Especially when you are already trying to restrict calories so there's not a lot of wiggle room. (That's kind of the reason why so many of us are overweight/obese!)

You can use an app that will look at weekly intake vs daily. This helps me with with staying within my calorie limit.

Anonymous wrote:If I eat more one day, I just eat less and move more the next day. It all evens out in the end.

The problem is it's not hard at all to eat an extra 2000 calories in a splurge (1 order of General Tso's plus some caramels will do it!) but it is hard to take out/burn an extra 2000 calories the next day. Especially when you are already trying to restrict calories so there's not a lot of wiggle room. (That's kind of the reason why so many of us are overweight/obese!)

If I eat more one day, I just eat less and move more the next day. It all evens out in the end.

Anonymous wrote:Tomorrow start again. One day splurge is fine. Don't write off all the good work you've put in so far!

NP. This is my mantra. I’m amazingly excellent at self sabotage…working to change my ways!

I find if I name the self-sabotage while I'm doing it, I can stop easier. Like as soon as I call it out I can set a limit--and the limit might be I will nibble one more bite on this and throw it away. Or I'm done now.

I think it's important to get out of the mindset that once you splurge somehow the gates are open and you can just keep splurging and get back on track tomorrow. Because the bag of caramels has the same amount of calories whether you eat them all today or have them as a treat each day for a week. Plus you regain that sense of control when you put limits on the splurge. Also, when I have treats that I'm susceptible too (like a gift like that), I'm perfectly fine with taking one bite and throwing the rest of the piece out. It's often just as satisfying and I feel dumb and wasteful going for another one after I threw out one with just one bite.

Tomorrow start again. One day splurge is fine. Don't write off all the good work you've put in so far!

I was on a healthy eating streak. And then this afternoon for lunch I had general tso chicken with fried rice and a spring roll at our work cafeteria Then I came home and am nibbling on caramel butter tuiles MIL got for us from France.

Such is life!