Birthday weekend
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| Mon, 08-08-2005 - 10:18am |
So yesterday was my 21st birthday! Besides for the fact that it was my 21st, my family tends to take birthdays very seriously, and tripled with the fact that I was on vacation for the week before...well, needless to say its been difficult. I was doing really well over vacation. I mean, not getting to the gym, but still sticking pretty much to the diet. Then: wednesday night: boyfriend comes into town and huge steak dinner...thursday night: out for dinner...friday night: out for dinner, desert and a few too many birthday drinks...saturday night: out for dinner, desert and out to the bar...sunday: huge brunch spread, bagels, cake
And this is all not to mention all of the huge lunches and snacking throughout the day.
The surprising part is, Im not freaking out, which I always used to do if I fell off the wagon. Thats the biggest improvement I think with this diet compared to other diets I have tried. With South Beach, I know that I can go right back onto Phase 2. Im reading about other people on this message board who had a few bad days and want to go back on phase 1. I dont want to feel like I am punishing myself for eating (and drinking) what I want on my birthday weekend. I want food to remain an enjoyable experience. I have decided to not go on Phase 1 because dont have cravings, its only been 3-4 days of poor eating, and Phase 1 is just so restricting. Life happens, and it is not worth stressing about it. Im just going to start eating my normal Phase 2 again. One thing that I have definately learned is that the body adapts: You over-eat for a few days, maybe you gain a pound or two, and a lot of water weight. The way I see it though, "easy come, easy go." If you gain 5 "scale pounds" in 4 days, you will loose that quickly as you start eating normally again. Its those 10 lbs that I have had since I went through puberty in 7th grade that are going to be the most difficult to take off.
Anyway, I didnt mean for that to sound as cheesy as I think it is coming off as, but I just think that it is silly to punish oneself for having a few bad days over the span of weeks or months of eating properly and loosing tons of weight. I just think about how I used to eat, and compared to that, one bad weekend is nothing to stress about! My boyfriend, who is super fit, goes to the gym, and eats properly saw me stressing about every little food decision, and I admit that before this weekend, I was getting little obsessive about the whole eating and working out thing (unhealthily so). He said to me, just dont over think it. You know what you need to do, and if you want a piece of cake on your birthday, EAT IT! Its not going to make or break it. I think that this weekend was really good for me...it really put a reality check on the whole thing, which i think is important from time to time so that we dont get carried away.
Well, again, sorry if this all sounds dumb, I just really wanted to share my feelings with you.
Sophie

Sophie,
Your analysis of the past few days is right on target. (Your message is one that could be bumped up occassionally for others to read as a reality check for themselves.) With that attitide toward the whole thing, you've truly made SBD a WOE and not *just another diet*. Congratulations on breaking through!
Sophie, what a great post!
-Cassie
Thanks for sharing your birthday story with us.