my 'cheat days' are getting out of hand... help please!

Hello,
Tomorrow is my chosen day of the week where I kinda indulge.. which has been all fine and well and I've had one of these weekly so-called 'cheat days' for the last 7 months or so while I've been on CC... I find it really helps me stay on track the rest of the time! and i've steadily lost weight.
I have a really healthy diet in general with veggies, grains, fruit, oily fish etc, people who live with me comment on it a lot!
And CC has been wonderful.. I've lost 15 pounds, I now exercise regularly and feel and look great!

Buuut, back to my indulgence day ^_^ lately, things have been getting out of hand..  my cheat days are creeping up and up...and up. So I'm not feeling so great anymore.

Last week, I ate 4000 calories in one day! but I felt so bad about it though, and am embarrassed even mentioning it on here :/
I went and ran some off after.. burnt around 1,200 calories in exercise and general house work that day anyway but still went to bed on a 1000 calorie excess.
The thing is... I've always been a sweet lover.. but once I start eating sugar, I can't stop, until I feel gross.
I've been looking forward to tomorrow... allll week! just knowing I can have a bowl of ice cream, some chocolate.. lollies.. oh boy. But I'm also so nervous about it... coz I know i'll get on a slippery slope :( and well, clock up 3000 - 4000 calories. I'm dreading tomorrow actually.
In the past I've tried putting the brakes on when I get to around 2,500 and I've been quite happy with this, as I can have a maintenance day. But yeah, recently... my threshold has gone waay higher and I can just eat and eat.

Does anyone have any, ideas on how to manage this?
Perhaps I should rethink the whole cheat day thing.. and actually incorporate mini treats into my every day diet.. so I don't keep doing this. I think ultimatley, I can't yo-yo forever... I want a normal, every day diet.. without 'counting' down till the day I get to pig out, coz it's ridiculous! it shouldn't be about that at all.
Perhaps I'm missing some nutrient in my diet that causes such a sugar craving to arise?
OR maybe I should pig out on healthy food? I could quite possibly eat 2000 calories worth of granola heaped with fruit and fatty yoghurt... fill my self to the brim so I can't possibly fit any sweets in... and then call it a day.

Thanks for reading this long post.. I'm feeling self conscious about posting it.. but, I'd so appreciate any thoughts, ideas or.. empathies!
(:

I would say just have a little dessert after dinner each day.....like a cookie, one scoop of ice cream, some honey tea, or milk but then so you dont gain weight you need to cut some calories somewhere else........dont ever give yourself a day to just get into alot of junk food.....then it becomes a habit.......and dont keep alot of junk in your house...go out and buy it the day you plan on eating it......just get a little..if its a big pack of somthin than dont get it! ITS A TRAP lol

yeah, i agree with ipeace.   if i specify a "cheat day", then i freakin' go to town and binge like a crazy person on that day.  to me it feels better when i plan to eat good all the time, but then give myself a little break if a particularly special "cheat" opportunity comes up.  i think thats how normal people are supposed to eat:  plan to be good and not bad, but know that its okay to be bad everyonce in a while.

All my cheat days are about 3000-4000 calories.

I "cheat" about once every other week or so. When I feel guilty about this, I just remind myself that I used to eat 10,000-20,000 calories in a day when I used to binge.

So really, I am doing much better and making progress. Maybe space your cheat days a little farther apart- every other week or once a month. Then you only have 4000 "cheating" calories in a month, instead of 16000 "cheating" calories. But you still have a "cheat day" to look forward to.

I don't think cheat days are a great idea for exactly the reasons you said ... add it up and an extra 16000 calories a month is nearly 5 lbs.

I have 'eat what ever I want days' but they are few and far between and I have to earn it. Usually after a race that involves at least 2 weeks of perfect eating prior to race day and a race that is at minimum 3 or 4 hours long. Usually about 3 or 4 times a year.  Other than that I might allow myself the occasional treat, but not unlimited.

I find that if I start later in the day, I don't have enough time and stomach space left to consume all those calories!

I'm afraid I'm just not disciplined enough to have little indulgences every day, for me it's an all or nothing kind of thing (hence why I have a weight problem :/). Also, I like the way it makes me feel when I have great eating days, it puts my mind to rest knowing there's nothing sweet to eat except fruit until it's free day again.

Start your free day at supper, or at least late afternoon, and you'll find you cannot consume as much as having a whole day of eat what you like!

I also do what klebe does and have a "cheat meal" vs a "cheat day". At the beginning of my journey I only had cheat days once every 2 weeks and on that day I would try and eat all I could in that day! My tummy used to bloat out something fierce. I just recently switched to cheat meals once a week on Sundays and I start after 4pm so I eat really good for most of the day and then have pizza, or burgers, etc and then dessert. So far so good. I have lost 21 lbs since starting my journey on March 1. Good luck to you!

The problem i see emerging in this thread is people referring to eating as cheating.

For me i make sure my diet is balanced and fait and i always have that certain treat i want provided i dont do the dog on it! I am increadably active thoughtyraining around upto 12 hours aerobic activity a week. easily at least 1.5hrs a day. This is becuase of my job and my own particular interests.

However i stronly believe that if people refer to it as chating it implies evil and or wrong doing and thus will end up just over bingeing. If you allow a small treat into your life, make sure you are active and have a balanced diet all will be well. Of course there is always an exception to the rule.

For me today this is a very typical day;

breakfast 7am - 30gms porridge with water, 2 eggs scrambled with mushrooms and tomatoes and pineappkle.

10.30am - coffee, apple, 40grams brazil nuts

Lunch 1pm - Tuna, peppers, brocilli, boiled chicken breast, cucumber, beetroot and spinach on a bed of salad leaves and vinegarette dressing

4pm - just had 150gms of cottage cheese and a slice of guiness fudge

tonight for dinner i am preparing my self a veg dtirfry with prawns and sweet potatoe.

There is a farmers market here in my college every tuesday and that's where i got the fudge.

i also fit in a 2hr cycle today.

Some other days i would have a couple squares dark chocolate like lindt 86percent or if i want a biscuit ill grab 2 but not more. i always have a proportionned treat everyday and thus dont ever see a need to have a day where i eat away a whole days worth of calories on nutritionless food. i just dont see the point but then again what applies to me doesnt apply to anybody else as we are each to own and work differently. its a mental state that can be altered . of couyrse i am no angel and have had days where i just overeat on crap. there is also a big difference between bingeing and over eating.

just my own two cents really.

Well, I got through yesterday with all this in mind, and ended up consuming 2,900 calories only!! so phew :/ and a lot of that was having a huge breakfast of oatmeal and fruit... which filled me up till the afternoon.

Yes ipeace, you could be onto something there with just having the odd bit of desert etc after my meals instead of getting into this cheatday habit. Afterall I think it's more normal to have a balanced diet per day... not a massive overload once a week or whenever.

yummy_kitty, I'm going to space my cheatdays out a bit, I'll try every 2 weeks.. which I think is totally do-able with some mindpower, although I hope it doesn't make me indulge even more.. Oh, and I've never looked at it that way, the amount per month... damn, 16,000 per month is pretty much 2 kgs worth of.. crap being put into the system.

Good idea klebe... I kinda did that yesterday with having a huge breakfast, so I was so full and really didn't feel like loading up on sweet things till the evening! Yattab, cheatmeals.... good, good idea, that sounds like something even better to work towards. That way you can sit down, really enjoy it and be done, rather than snacking on stuff throughout the day.

Ncefspin, yeah, getting into the habit of referring to it all as 'cheating' isn't very constructive is it? I think if I had my treats intermingled with my usual healthy diet, they would become more normal and proportioned, rather than setting aside a day where all the 'bad cheat foods come out'.  The good thing is I do work out most days and now on the days where I indulge, I always go for a good run and do some housework.. like yesterday I ran around 7 miles.. and power walked and vacuumed ^_^

thanks heaps for the replies (:

Ncefspin, yeah, getting into the habit of referring to it all as 'cheating' isn't very constructive is it? I think if I had my treats intermingled with my usual healthy diet, they would become more normal and proportioned, rather than setting aside a day where all the 'bad cheat foods come out'.  The good thing is I do work out most days and now on the days where I indulge, I always go for a good run and do some housework.. like yesterday I ran around 7 miles.. and power walked and vacuumed ^_^

thanks heaps for the replies (:

 See that was a very active day. and im guessing you burned anywhere between 6-800 kcal for the run, some more for the power walk and housework on top of your normal daily burn. im guessing thats over a 1000kcal+ for you there. On days where you are particularly more active you could indulge in a prtionned snack like i mentionned earlier. helps keep me sane :)