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Home >> Diet Forums >> Messed Up Lately?

Messed Up Lately?

Cupcake said: ":D You always post the greatest articles! Thanks."

UniqueMystique said: "Diet Went in the Dumper Over the Weekend? By Doug Cooley You're flying home from a happy weekend of celebrating Cousin Lola's nuptials when it hits you: Your resolve to stick to your diet vanished faster than that second piece of wedding cake you ate. Remorse and guilt set in. You begin to think you're weak and hopeless and should just give up trying to take off those extra pounds. Holidays, vacations, family reunions, weekend getaways—they all provide plenty of opportunity for sabotaging a weight watcher's careful eating regimen. And when that happens, weight loss experts acknowledge that it can leave the dedicated dieter truly despondent. "Most of my clients feel horrible about backsliding," says Molly Gee, a weight loss counselor and registered dietitian at Baylor Medical Center in Houston. "The guilt is often much worse than the extra calories. They can actually go into relapse." Women are especially hard on themselves, Gee adds. "They start to do this number on themselves where they think they don't deserve to lose weight." A Process, Not a Contest Gee and other counselors say dieters who despair when they go astray must adopt a different mindset. "They need to know it's not the end of the earth," says Jeannette Jordan, a registered dietitian in Charlotte, North Carolina and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "I tell clients that every day is a new day. If they fall off the wagon and have made some unhealthy food choices, then I tell them that this is the day to begin making healthy food choices again." That perspective doesn't come easy for some—especially those who carry a hardcore attitude toward their dieting. "Veteran dieters often operate in black and white thinking," says Gee. "They feel they're either on the diet or not. That's not helpful. Dieting is not a contest. It's a journey, a process. Embracing that concept really does help." Getting Back on Track What should you do if you overindulged on that four-day Acapulco cruise? Jordan and Gee offer these tips: Don't beat yourself up. Get over the guilt and move on with an understanding that a diet is something you must constantly work at. "Weight loss is not a straight line between two points," says Gee. Jordon adds that dieters also need to realize that slip ups don't "negate all the good you've done prior to that." Stay off the scale for 24-48 hours. If you frequently ate in restaurants, you probably consumed more salt than normal and have retained extra fluid – especially if you weren't exercising and perspiring. This fluid weight will show up on the scale. The scale can also indicate other gastro-intestinal processes that are out of sync. "The scale is not your friend the Monday after," says Gee. "It will never say the thing you want it to say." Resume the routines that work for you. If you keep a food log, or have developed the habit of weighing and measuring foods, get back to those routines. Gee says keeping a food log is a powerful behavioral strategy dieters should adopt. "When you write down what you eat it gives you an accountability system." For convenience, Gee advises dieters to carry around sticky notes to write on, since they can easily be added to your food log at the end of the day. Check in with your diet buddy. If you've got a friend you're dieting with or someone to discuss your weight loss struggles with, get in touch and let them know you stumbled. Not only can they provide encouraging words, they may have some suggestions to help you regroup—like inviting you to go for a walk. Weight loss counselors typically agree that dieters with a social support system tend to have more success losing weight. Increase your physical activity. If exercise is part of your weight loss plan (and it should be), up your gym time a bit or add another mile to your jog to offset the extra calorie intake. Jordan says the real key to regrouping after a wayward weekend is knowing diet failures are never final. "The main thing dieters need to realize is that they can always start over.""

Holly said: "Yes, that is a nice article to read. Very timely too, I've been doing really well not snacking in the evening. Until yesterday night...I had some homemade pumpkin cookies at like 10:00. NOT a good idea, but I'm just going to start up again today with healthy choices. :)"