So I told you guys that Sunday - which has always been my "official" weigh in day - would be the day when I assessed the damage that I had done from eating SO MUCH over the holidays.
Based on my weigh ins over the last few days, I was guessing I would be about 3 pounds higher. Not great, but not a disaster, either. But there was some nervousness when I got up this morning and stood in front of the scale.
As a huge Star Trek fan, I imagined Jean-Luc Picard sitting in his Captain's Chair after an attack and barking out "damage report?!" to the crew.
My scale requires that you tap it to bring up the 000.0 before you step on it. I slapped the scale with my foot and waited for the numbers to come up. I hesitated, took a deep breath, and stepped on. Waiting for the scale to do its thing and calculate - I haven't had this much anxiety about the reading in a long time. Finally the numbers popped up...
Um... what? NO DAMAGE TO REPORT.
I was elated!! Wow! So overindulging - massively - didn't cause disaster!!
So what are the lessons that I - and you - can hopefully take from this? A short term fuck up - by that I mean even several days - is no reason to throw in the towel.
What did I do after the indulgences? I went back to my normal, healthy, on plan eating. I didn't do anything tremendously dramatic. I didn't cut back to ridiculously low calories. I didn't do some wild "cleansing" diet. Nope - I just went back to my normal routine.
Water - I am a water drinker, anyway. But I made sure to guzzle water this week to flush out my system.
Exercise. I went back to exercising hard and on target. From last Sunday to yesterday, I ran 35 miles, did some time on the elliptical, and continued to strength train and do my DVD's. That's a lot of calories burned. It doesn't "fix" or make up for the "bad" eating, but it certainly helped knock me back down.
So I am happy to be in my normal weight range, and I feel mentally ALMOST back on track. If you fell off during the holidays, if you gained a little, get back on track RIGHT NOW. You can and will be back to where you want to be before you know it!
Now go on - MAKE IT SO!
Bang on, Jen. Solid advice and I wish more people would heed it. Radical over-correction for off plan days is a common mistake and many folks cannot do it without consequences. Just going back to your normal plan and ignoring the scale for the week or two while doing so usually takes care of things :)
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