I ****ed up - need a group hug

[tasteslikechicken]

On Tuesday night I went out with a group of friends, acquaintances, and perfect strangers. We meet once a month and I hadn’t seen some of them since June. Short story long: I drank 2 vodka pink lemonades and I ate nachos Yes, I ate the tortilla chips. My line of thought was: “one nacho won’t kill you” but before I knew it I had lost count of how many I was eating.

Yesterday I woke up feeling bloated and miserable. I didn’t have a hangover. I was just disappointed knowing that I let myself down on Tuesday night. I wasn’t really hungry so I drank a lot of water thru the day and ate some cheese here and there. In the afternoon I could have gotten back into the Atkins zone eating some chicken and a salad BUT I made the conscious choice of going out (I work from home), walking to the supermarket, and buying a bag of chips, a roll, and a Hershey’s bar. Again, I could have made the right choice and get some cucumbers, a red pepper, a tomato or some other things to chop in my salad but, noooo!, I had to go and keep ****ing it up with the carb loaded junk

WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME?!!!!!!! (rhetorical)

You don’t even want to know what I’m eating today. I had a test and I’ve "rewarded" myself with a McFish when I got out and I have “dinner” (see above: chips, etc) lined up. Reward... what am I a dog now?

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I feel pretty pathetic right now but one of the voices inside me says: “hey at least you’re not eating donuts” (hi Liv!).

I need to put my-hormonal-self together and go back to Day 1 of Induction tomorrow. I can do this.

[mizski]

Stop doing that!!!

[Elizellen]

Here's a big hug for you first!

Falling for that old siren song of "I already ate ***** so might as well go and eat ****** and ***** as well as I have messed up today" is something many of us have/had to battle with when we start Atkins, so you are not alone.

Sometimes we seem to feel that we have to punish ourself by continuing the wrong choices, maybe because of low self esteem, guilt at being the one who is seen to be different to the rest, or because we think we don't deserve to succeed.

You need to forgive yourself and get back on plan the VERY NEXT BITE the next time it happens, to minimise the damage you will be doing to your body's efforts to lose weight.

Your first quotation in your signature sums it up very well

“You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change.” Les Brown

It might be that you will need to change by looking out for the situations where you might lose focus (like being out with drinking pals) and give it a miss for a while until the habit of eating Atkins has become part of your routine and you can say "No, I don't fancy a drink right now, I'll have a sparkling mineral water with ice and a slice of lemon please" and later "No, I am not hungry at the moment, I ate earlier/will eat later".

[tasteslikechicken]

@mizski, that hitting you with the sauce pan icon is priceless!

@elizellen, thanks for your kind words and advice. I’ve already cancelled San Gennaro and brunch plans this weekend – brunch is manageable but we go out for drinks after we’re done eating and I don’t want to fail into temptation. Even with low-carbing friends who are at different stages and drink vodka or lowcarb beer. I guess I’ll be a hermit till I move on to OWL and/or find friends who want to instead of going out. San Gennaro is an Italian Festival in Little Italy - you can't go without having pasta. Or at least I think I can't right now so I'm not going.

[PeteinVA]

Originally Posted by tasteslikechicken

San Gennaro is an Italian Festival in Little Italy

Oh my Lord San Gennaro?! I grew up going to that! How in the world could you go there and not have sausage/peppers or zeppoles!

Sorry you're missing it. And I've been away from NYC for years and years so thanks for bringing it up...

[pinkfusion]

the second that you feel like you cheated just get right back on. you can do this and messing up a couple of times isnt going to stop you.

[bellajgw]

Tastes, Eliz is totally on mark with this one! My biggest problem has ALWAYS been those momentary lapses turning into weeks of binging, months of falling off the wagon. You can't allow that goof up to screw up the entire plan!

The moment that you realize you are screwing up or have screwed up don't say to yourself, "well, I might as well". Think "I screwed up, its done, now I'm going to eat right starting this very second so all my hard work is not for nothing!"

Giving in to those carb-induced sarbo-loading suggestions are exactly what causes me to say I'm on my 8th try in 5 years with Atkins. Don't follow my example. Stop the madness now, this week! You can totally do it! Its just a matter of realizing that this is your MO and deciding to change it and acting on that!

[FwL]

I'm sure everybody on this board can feel your pain. We've all been in similar circumstances.

The moral of this story is ONE NACHO WILL KILL YOU.

Just say no.

[liv]

We all have our weaknesses for sure. My list is not short
Are you hanging in there. Hope to hear that you are on plan today

[Slapshot]

Originally Posted by FwL

I'm sure everybody on this board can feel your pain. We've all been in similar circumstances.

The moral of this story is ONE NACHO WILL KILL YOU.

Just say no.

Hmm. I had a different reaction/interpretation. I (bet) wonder if the vodka pink lemonades preceded the nachos. For me, the physical effect of alcohol isn't a big deal - it's the nonsense I eat when my inhibitions are reduced from the alcohol that's the problem. Which is why I was at Rung 5 for one Saturday night, and back to Rung 4 on Sunday morning. I'll likely skip rung 5 for now and experiment with it closer to/at goal.