Cheater, cheater

You know what the greatest part of a diet—excuse me, life style change—is, right? It's kind of like Christmas morning. You start to feel the anticipation days in advanced. You wake up knowing that it's finally here! Today! Today is your cheat day!

That might be a slight exaggeration, but I will be the first to admit that I enjoy a cheat day, at least until the end of the day. By then, I'm usually feeling bloated and sick. My husband, Tim, told me once that the whole purpose of a cheat day isn't really to give yourself a break. The purpose is to remind yourself how much better you feel when you're eating a healthy, balanced diet.

But sometimes, we fall off the wagon and have trouble climbing back on. Welcome to my life last week. My birthday was Friday the 8^th. I spent the entire week in a birthday induced food coma.

It started out on Sunday with a trip to Cracker Barrel. I even ordered apple sauce for one of my three (THREE!!!) sides that day in an attempt to make one healthy choice, but the waitress brought me coleslaw by mistake. I said nothing and enjoyed the calorie laden side. That night, we went to a local pizza shop where I had two slices and shared an order of cheesy crab fries with a side a ranch with Tim. That night, I ate a cold slice of left over piece a bit before heading to bed. Big mistake. I was up half the night sick. You would have thought I learned...

Monday and Tuesday went by without an incident. Wednesday, though, the east coast was hit with a “giant” snow storm. It didn't amount to more than a few inches that melted by mid-afternoon, but as Tim and I both work in schools, it got us a day off work. There's something about snow, though, that makes me want to eat. I can't even remember everything I ate that day, but it was bad. The one thing I do remember is that Tim made breakfast that morning. I had a few pieces with my breakfast... and then throughout the morning, as I would walk by the left overs sitting on a plate in the kitchen, I'd grab another piece... and another... and another. About two hours after breakfast, Tim kindly informed me that he had made an entire pack of bacon—12 slices—and he had only had 3 or 4 of those slices. I broke down into tears. How had I eaten 9 slices of bacon? Still, the week continued without me really learning a lesson.

A decent Thursday led into my birthday on Friday! I had lunch with my co-workers at Panera Bread, which has a lot of healthy choices. I did “splurge” on broccoli cheddar instead of my usual choice of low cal Chicken Noodle. Still, not bad. Evening led to a dinner at UNOs. I picked the restaurant purely for the dessert—the giant Peanut Butter Cup. It was as delicious as I remembered and the deep dish pizza was good too. My night didn't end there, though. We stopped at 7 Eleven where I picked up a cola Slurpee, a pack of Sour Skittles, and a bag of Utz's Salt and Vinegar Chips. Oh, salt and vinegar chips? Another trigger food. I can eat a big bag in one sitting if I kept them in my house. I think my only good food decision that day was to get a single serving bag of those chips!

The birthday weekend went on for another two days, sadly. Tim made me a great birthday breakfast (my favorite meal of the day) on Saturday, but I did go easy on the bacon, at least. We went out to eat with his side of the family for dinner that night. The fatty foods continued—fried onion petals, a loaded sweet potato, and a piece of Amish style chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. Sunday we had family dinner with my side of the family—fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, red velvet cupcakes, and ice cream with hot fudge, just to name a few.

At the end of that week, I gained 3 pounds back. I guess I should be thankful it wasn't worse on the scale, especially after the Bacon Epidemic of 2013, as it will now be called. But worse than any number on the scale was how miserable I felt. Physically, I was run down, tired, bloated. Emotionally, I felt like a failure.

Tomorrow will be a week since I ended my birthday eating binge. I'd do a lot different if I could go back in time, but I also learned a lot of great lessons.

1. Weight comes back on way too fast to cheat too frequently. Three pounds in a week is a scary number. Three times 52 weeks is... 156 pounds!
2. Future cheat days will be done differently. Yes, I'll take a break for calorie recording, but I will limit myself to one special meal that day. A cheat breakfast, lunch, and dinner is unnecessary.
3. It's never too late to get back on the wagon. Sunday evening, I felt like I just wanted to give up, but Monday morning I broke out my measuring cups, opened up MyFitnessPal.com, and resumed my journey to strong.