One cheat day, lead to many.
A day after hitting my goal for April 1st, our family went out to dinner for a celebration! I told myself I would not be super restrictive, but instead just stick to my food values. My food values include not eating gluten period, and not to indulge in sugar. Indulge to me would be like having a scoop of icecream, cake, and more. On a cheat day, or indulgence day, I can have 1 carby thing per meal, and to choose wisely.
So, during dinner, I ordered a 14 oz ribeye, steamed vegetables and a loaded baked potato! It was so damn good to be honest. I then ordered a margarita. IT WAS SO STRONG. I asked for a small glass of the mixer to dilute, and I felt obliged to finish it. Well, that sort of goes against my food values right? I loaded baked potato and then a sugary margarita, in one sitting? I rationalized this by saying, on an indulgence day, I can have around 3 carby items anyways, so why not just have the two right now and call it a day? I didn't spend too much time ruminating on this, but the day ended and I was ready to just keep moving forward. The next day, I checked my ketones and I was so shocked to see my blood ketones at 0.7! I went for a long walk early in the AM and I did okay. I did notice that I had sweet cravings, and I began to eat all the keto snacks. I had 2 bottles of bai Antioxidant drinks, a Keto Crisp Bar and a Premier Protein shake. That's a lot of relying on sweet tasting alternatives in order to fulfil this craving. I finished the night off by making tacos, and using 2 of the A La Madre tortillas which are supposedly low carb. I checked my ketones the next morning and they dropped to 0.2. I was sad. And what do I do when I am sad? I order my favorite things from the Cheesecake Factory!
On Monday, April 4th, I ordered from my Cheesecake Factory and I got the Sweet Tamale Corn Cakes. So good, but definitely NOT keto! Why did I eat something like this when I was supposed to be jumping back into the routine? I reasoned with my sugar addiction. Convinced myself that it wouldn't be so bad to lose any gained weight again, and that its just this one time. Well, my sugar addiction was jumping for joy and for an additional 14 days, I was on a roll! The good news, is that although I struggled to get back on track, I did not go overboard with this temporary freedom.
I weighed myself on Monday, April 18th, and I was sad to see the scale back at 230. That means I had gained 9 lbs in 18 days. I knew most of it was water, but still! By Wednesday, I had dropped down to 227. Only 6 lbs to go. I hope to get down to 221 by the end of the month, which was where I was on April 1st. I basically lost a whole month of progress from this nonsense.
I am back on track, and instead of regretting my gainful experience, Im glad to have had some off plan meals and I am ready to keep slaying my goals. Time to adjust my goals a little.