I have been having this debate with myself for a week or two. Today it has greatly intensified.
I have been very diligent about keeping in my calorie budget. I use MyFitnessPal which tracks calories and adds extra calories if you exercise. I currently eat between 1300-1400 calories a day. In the past 6 weeks I have gone over my set calories a couple times, but have never exceeded my additional exercise calories. I normally try not to use my exercise calories. If I am going to sweat (or glow) I want that extra work to help me reach my goals faster.
I honestly haven't had too much trouble staying in budget. However, there are some foods that I have been missing and they would make it much more difficult for me to not go over budget. For example, a local place has the most delicious Butter Pecan frozen custard. I don't know how many calories it has so I am "afraid" to eat it. I would love a plate of nachos, but by the time I "slim them down" they aren't quite the nachos I was craving.
I had been thinking that since my birthday is coming up and it happens to be on a weigh-in day that I might splurge a little after weigh-in and not worry if I go over calories. It would be one day and I would have a week to recover before my next weigh-in. Now that it almost here I am having second thoughts. I still want what I want, but I am struggling with being perfect. Does going over my calories one day out of 6 weeks make me bad?
I don't think an occasional splurge is bad at all. However, setting a precedent could be dangerous. What is a justifiable splurge. This week my birthday, next week it might be that the sun is shining. I know I am being a bit ridiculous. We are doing great and I have no real reason to think a splurge is going to throw me completely off track.
So the debate rages on. Full report tomorrow...
On a somewhat related subject. I was quite annoyed today. As I was waiting in the checkout line at Walmart I had plenty of time to peruse the snacks. It seemed like at least half of the packages were labeled as two to three servings. Seriously, who doesn't eat the whole packet of Bacon Cheddar pretzel nuggets (300 calories)?? I can't tell you the number of times I have eaten the box of Reese's Pieces (600 calories) by myself in one sitting. I didn't even look at the a Grab Bag of chips - I know that thing is 3.5 servings and I owe at least one thigh to that marketing strategy!! Bottom line is that if I buy and open one of those snack items I won't have the strength to eat a so called one serving. So instead I buy nothing and continue to long for the treats :(
Had a good walk this morning - 3 miles at 15:20/mile average. Then tonight a mini workout at the gym while my husband was doing weights. I did 7 minutes on the elliptical. Then I did 20 minutes on the bike. I tried the random hill program. I had to reduce the difficulty a couple times at the steepest hills. Wish I could do that on my real bike :)
So I have done what I can for the week and tomorrow we will see how the scale plays out.
Anna, You are doing awesome.... why dont you give yourself a calorie amount for your birthday.. for example : I can have 500 over/extra calories on my birthday ... then have the treat in that amount ?? that way you are giving yourself a limit, and you can stay in the parameters of your birthday limit - just a suggestion because you are having difficulty with maybe going " hog wild " I think giving yourself extra but a set amount may help... what ever you decide, know this.. you are doing great.. and a birthday extravaganza wont stop or negate all of your hard work... you can do this !!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your support. I think the set amount of extra calories is a good idea. We ended up having Subway for lunch. We are going for dinner. And there are no "bad" snacks at home so I think I am going to be okay.
DeleteThe way I look at it, and what has been most succesful for me, is being a B average eater. So I eat fantastically 80% of the time. The thing is, I want to do this for the rest of my life. And if I am going to successfully eat well for the rest of my life I have to find a way to eat the occasional pizza treat or frozen yogurt.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, my trick is to figure out how many calories it is before I eat it. That way I can kinda plan my day around it. And if you have to dip into your excercise calories it is OK! This is your life and if in your life and your life's goals you want to make room for nachos and the occasional frozen yogurt (which sounds AWESOME) then you do it! Otherwise you may end up binging, at least I know I do.
Plus, I don't know about you but sometimes I think I totally scrwed my eating my eating certian things. Then I log the calories and it was nowhere near as bad as I thought.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
Ugh! My computer was giving me fits yesterday and apparently it ate the reply I wrote you yesterday. Basically it said I have been thinking quite a bit about 80/20 eating. I think it is going to be something I embrace lifelong - I am trying to do a little better than that during the main losing phase though. I have been entering food in advance into MyFitnessPal and it has definitely helped. Thank you so much for your encouragement :)
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