We spent a day painting our house this weekend. All that painting burned 3500 calories so I had plenty of room for a reward sushi dinner and a few drinks. Even after eating normally during the day and having a big dinner and drinks I still had a deficit of about 500 calories. Unfortunately, when I drink I also like to eat more. So, about an hour after we came home I had 2 servings of Terra chips and half a Hershey’s chocolate bar for about 415 calories. I hadn’t totalled my calorie intake for the day yet since it’s so hard to do when you eat out. But, I thought I had enough room for the snack. Imagine my surprise when I tallied it all up and found out that I blew my deficit with that unnecessary snack.
Despite the fact that I had burned 1200 calories more than I do in a normal day, since I didn’t calculate the calories I was eating as I did it, I underestimated what I had eaten and managed to ingest nearly 3300 calories. I was so sure I had burned so many calories that I could eat just about anything I wanted and still have a deficit. The lesson here? It’s nearly impossible to burn enough calories in a day to allow you to consume without being vigilant.
Not only did I eat more than I should have, but between the beers and sake we had with our sushi, I had an estimated nearly 900 calories from alcohol alone. And, I know the reason I ate the extra chips and the candy bar was because I had alcohol which makes me snacky. If I had opted to only have one drink or to not drink at all, I would have had at least a 1000 calorie deficit. I thought I deserved a reward for all my hard work. But, in hindsight, a huge calorie deficit would have been a better reward and would have felt much better than having those drinks and snacks felt.
This isn’t the first time I’ve made this same mistake and I’m sure it won’t be the last. It’s hard to remember how much better losing a pound feels than a treat tastes when the temptation is right in front of you. For today, I am just thankful I didn’t end up with a calorie surplus and will try to remember the lessons from this weekend. I’ll probably push myself a little harder in today’s workout to shake the feeling of disappointment in myself.
