Recovering from Thanksgiving

So I went overboard - about 3200 calories and 900 of them were drinks. Oh boy. And It didn't feel good - I felt bloated, sick, and uncomfortable for the rest of the night so I'm going to try and remember that feeling for Christmas. Next time I want to enjoy and savor each dish but not pig out.
Anyway, onwards and upwards as they say (or hopefully, downwards). Does anyone have advice for the day after? I'm going to go for a long walk, but as far as calories go I don't know if I should go back to my normal cal count, or try to have a light day to make up for yesterday. I'm not sure whether a "light" day will just freak my metabolism and make it store even more of yesterday's excess? So what do you think - after a big day do you go light or just back to normal?

Thank you for mentioning this...  I went overboard too...  nothing like I used to eat but I had that uncomfortable full feeling...  then...  a friend brought over two pieces of homemade chocolate cake with real whipped cream and cherries...   I wasnt the least bit hungry but I ate one piece of the cake and immediately after the other...   Now heres the wierd part...  after months of sensible eating where appetite was not a problem and I had no urge to binge...   NOW I AM STARVING..  there is something wierd in my brain when it comes to food...  unlike other addictions, with food we have to take the tiger out of its cage for a walk 3 times a day.  

I am spending today eating very sensible.. within my target calories (cause if I starve I set up the starve/binge cycle)  and watching the composition..  (cause if I go hog wild with carbs and suger I will binge and binge..)  I have faith that if I keep a real check on things this will pass also.

In a way its a good thing.. because I havent seen anyprogress with weight loss..  but I now know that my months of conscientious effort are having a very real effect on binging...

so..  to answer your question.. I am going back to normal.. 

I also went over (2100 calories in all) but then we took a long walk. Got rid of the bloated feeling.

I know what you mean about the drinks I had some spiced wine and wanted some Irish Cream with my coffe BUT found out how many calories I'd be drinking and it took the "wanting" right out of my head. :)

Today I'm back on the band wagon and exercising yesterday's excesses off!

I know what you mean about being starving hungry now. Isn't it ridiculous? I ate 3 days worth of food in 1 day, and now my body says "more more more!". You'd think I wouldn't be able to face food for days. Good point about sticking with target calories to avoid the binge/purge cycle. I don't consider myself a binger but I guess that would be exactly what I was doing if I tried to lower my cals too much today to punish myself for yesterday.

{In a way its a good thing.. because I havent seen anyprogress with weight loss.. but I now know that my months of conscientious effort are having a very real effect on binging...} Good to hear that you've found some positive news in all of this

Cmora, good on you for checking the irish cream before drinking it. I just kind of buried my head in the sand for most of yesterday. I'd looked up some calorie values before heading to my sister's, but then all those good intentions got thrown out the window. I stayed over at her place, and was seriously considering having chocolate cream pie for breakfast, but I did manage to walk away from that one.

was seriously considering having chocolate cream pie for breakfast, but I did manage to walk away from that one.

Good for you..  I wouldn't have been able to..   you are strong.

It's CC and staying home helped alot.  I WILL have a mug of Irish Cream and coffee today but just one ;)

One bad thing about doing all the cooking is I have pies (peacan, apple, pumpkin), stuffing, sweet potato caserole, mashed potatoes just sitting there in the fridge waiting to be eaten.

All the chocolate pie was gone thankfully.:)

I seriously dont know (and didnt wanna know) how much cal i consumed yesterday XD but i tasted every single dish that was served! .. plus some sweets. I did morning exercise prior going to the lunch (it was a whole afternoon event) and then do more exercise at night, when all the food got digested. Today, I just going to work on some reaistance training. Too lazy to run outside and my gym is cloed for the weekend.

P.S. as an afterthought.. I could be burning calories in the shopping malls with all the mad-dash shoppers on black friday... but then again... nah ;p

Will you hate me when I tell you that my Thanksgiving dinner was under 500 calories?  I just took small portions and made choices, such as not having bread or sweet potatoes so I could have some stuffing and gravy.  I took big portions of salad and green beans (they were plain with a sauce on the side - I skipped the sauce). 

I added about 250 more calories earlier in the day by having a glass of sparkling cider, about an ounce of beautiful cheese and two crackers, and 2 shrimp with cocktail sauce. 

I'm pretty happy about how well I did.

NO, Clairelaine, I won't hate you! That's GREAT!~ You feel good about yourself, don't you now! :) What I will never understand is why people eat to oblivion year after year and make themselves sick and miserable when they KNOW they're gonna feel like crap later. And they'll do it again next year ... why doesn't anybody remember how awful they felt and just not do it ...

"Now heres the wierd part...  after months of sensible eating where appetite was not a problem and I had no urge to binge...   NOW I AM STARVING..  there is something wierd in my brain when it comes to food ... " -- neversaydiekai

This is not weird at all -- I believe the reason is because of blood sugar (and BECAUSE of the big meal the day before). This same thing has happened to me when I eat more than normal -- the next day I am starved. If I go to bed without anything in my stomach, I'll wake up fine; if I eat some "big" I'll wake up starving.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Thanksgiving.  At 9:00 a.m. my hubby and I went to the gym and I did about 45 minutes of cardio.  I had one plate of food, only taking seconds of the salad and green bean casserole.   I had a small piece of pie. 

Weighed my self this morning and actually lost one pound.  I also got up at 4:30 to be to the stores by 5:00 a.m.  and finally stopped shopping by noon, so got lots of walking in.  I am back on plan for the day since we have our second Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. 

For those of you that waaay over indulged, I would cut back my calories by 100 or so for today and make sure that you are packing in the most nutritous foods, no junk.   Oh and lots, lots of water.

I actually did pretty well yesterday, my normal intake is around 1,300 - 1,400, and I only did around 1,800! I was at my normal weight this morning!

I have to admit, I was dreading Thanksgiving - figured I'd overeat just like all the other ones.  However I ended up doing just 1 helping, and never even finished everything on my plate.  I think part of it is I just wasn't in the mood for the food, not to mention some of it didn't come out as good as I had hoped (or planned) so it helped keep the desire for it, down.  My biggest thing about the holiday is having the leftover turkey and stuffing in sandwiches, however, since the turkey we got is smoked (and I don't like smoked meat, with the possible exception of sausages) and my stuffing didn't come out right (asked Wes to make it instead of doing it myself cuz I was busy doing other things) that means my leftover turkey/stuffing sandwiches are out too.  :sigh: Guess it's for the best - didn't need all those extra calories anyways.  And I feel good that I didn't go overboard like I thought I would.  That means my trip today to the gym was working on my 'real' weight instead of my holiday overload.  LOL

I know we are all saying "oh my word, what did I eat", however I am glad that you were all able to share it with family and friends.  I hope you all had a wonderful day.

willowraven, please let me know where to send the extra casserole dish of chestnut stuffing in my refrigerator.....

I didn't do nearly as much damage to myself as I've done nearly every other year, but whoa, have I eaten a lot today and yesterday.

I think the sensation of being slightly overfull no long feels comforting. That might be because I'm more conscious about food or because I'm now a middle aged biddy. 

Well... I didn't do so bad.....  Thank god.. I was worried.  I tried to to focus more on white meat, and a large portion of salad...  Everything else were small portion.  I had 3 glasses of wine, so that might of taken it a little over.  I felt great.  i left the dinner table feeling comf.  I didn't feel like i over ate.

I find that after a long period of not consuming much in terms of processed sugars, that when I do eat a piece of pie or chocolate cake, I suddenly start craving more.

It's very strange, but it matches your "I'M STARVING" feeling after eating badly...

I think that too much processed sugar is part of the "addiction" that I want to kick.

---Kayvan

WOW, some of you did really go and was only able to have one serving. Well i ended thanks giving day with about 2500 calories. i enjoyed the meal and i was totally stuffed...I'm getting myself back into gear now. I loved reading everyone's post just to know that i'm not alone...

I definitely overate, both yesterday and the day before. I didn't count calories at all on Thanksgiving, but it was probably comparable to what I ate yesterday, which was about 800-900 over my maintenance.

So a rough estimate, perhaps 2000 calories total too much over two days. And you know what? I'm fine with that! It's not even one pound's worth of calories. I make chestnut stuffing but once or twice a year; ditto the broccoli casserole and pies. Those are the items that I'm most likely to have more than one serving of, and they are totally totally worth the calories. (My tall child came home from another Thanksgiving dinner, and though he said he wasn't very hungry for ours, still ate three or four servings of the broccoli casserole. Yeah, it's so good, a 13-year-old wants more of it!)

A hike yesterday, some of which was straight up a very steep hill (as in, climbing up almost on hands and knees), some DDR today and tomorrow, and clean eating this coming week will mitigate the damage.

The difference between this year and previous years? I'll mitigate the damage! :-)

I am scared to calculate all the calories because I went WAYYY overboard. Probably 3000 calories. And yes, my body is telling me I'm starving and I just ate! So, it's just up to me to discipline myself now!

I did OK.  Ate a small breakfast that morning so I could take my meds.  Ate normal to slightly large portions for my first plate.  And then I had seconds of the Brussels Sprouts!  :)  Then one small serving of dessert - which really the dessert felt like I was slightly overdoing it....  not terribly though.

But I haven't been drinking enough water.  I think when I hit the water I might actually drop a little weight.