Turkey Day!

What can I say? Thanksgiving is a very dangerous time for a dieter.

Today, I should definitely be thankful for all the food I ate. This year is actually the first time I'm eating turkey for thanksgiving! (it's an Asian thing)

Now as I have said before, I am a university student with a decent social life. Therefore, due to various reasons, I ended up going to two thanksgiving dinners tonight.

1 thanksgiving dinner = calories overload.
2 thanksgiving dinners =  (yes that is a very fat cat)

My first thanksgiving dinner was at 6pm. I arrived, helped mash the potatoes (woot), and had some delicious turkey with salad, asparagus, and of course the mashed potatoes with yummy dripping giblet gravy. Afterwards, I had one slice of cheesecake and apple pie. Delicious.

The 12kg turkey. It was devoured.

At 8, I went to my other dinner. I arrived feeling pretty full, but obviously I had to try this turkey. It was quite delicious as well, and I was also able to stuff down some pasta (who am I). After about half an hour, I had dessert #2. I had one slice of lime cheese cake, one slice of pumpkin pie, and one strawberry cheesecake truffle.
At around 10, I went to study with some friends at a local cafe. Feeling bad for not purchasing anything, we all got a drink. I got an iced cappuccino (woah there calories). Afterwards, I lapsed into a food coma and took a 5 minute nap.
It is now 1:30am, and I am still full.
WHY DO I EAT SO MUCH!?

On the way back home, I ran into one of my friend. I reccounted my eating excursions of the day, and he compared my stomach to a black hole (no surprise there). Then, he asked me if I ate this much last year.
Excluding this as a special occasion, I actually did not quite know how to answer that question. I'm not sure if I actually ate less last year (even with all that caf food and midnight snacks), or if it just seems like I'm eating more this year because I'm actually counting the calories. Hm.

My life in a nutshell. Hopefully this extravagant thanksgiving will be able to deter future binge eating!

P.S. Morning banana diet clearly doesn't work.

Unstoppable

I think the main problem I have with counting calories is the danger of binge eating. For me, binge eating occurs on days when I eat over my 1300 calorie diet. Once I go over, I begin to adopt a "what-the-hell" mindset. My willpower automatically drops, and I am unable to resist any pastry in my pantry.

The scariest part of binge eating is that I can't stop eating. Even when my stomach is literally stuffed to the brim, I push myself to eat any sweets, or pastries available because this is the "last day" I will be able to eat them. Binge-eating days provide me with a free pass to eat all the sweets I try so hard to resist on a daily basis. This basically leads me to "eat all I can." Every time I binge-eat, I consume close to 3000 calories.

It's obvious that binge-eating is a terrible thing, and makes me feel extremely guilty after I finish.

Unfortunately, lately, binge-eating have become much more frequent. As an executive member of multiple clubs, and an individual with a decent social life, eating out has become a very prevalent activity. Just this week, I am going to eat All You Can Eat Sushi, All You Can Eat Korean Barbecue, Chinese food, and more sushi. Since this is the last week before midterms officially begin, clubs have decided to host celebratory dinners for the exec board during this time.

Needless to say, this is very, very, bad for my diet. Eating out makes it difficult to keep within my calories limit, and therefore leads me to binge-eat. My worst binge eat to date, was probably this Friday night.


WARNING: The sheer amount of food consumed in the following section is not for the weak-stomached. 

I began Friday morning knowing that I was going to go over calories today (worst mindset ever). I went to a morning tutorial after buying a French Toast and Maple Cinnamon bagel. After the tutorial, I bought a Apple and Cinnamon muffin. Then, on the way to my next class, I stopped by a cafe and bought a Cinnamon Scone (I like cinnamon). THEN, I went home and made myself 3 bowls of yogurt and bran flakes and a bowl of cabbage cooked with soy sauce (something healthy?). After 2 hours of down time, I went to my club's welcome dinner at Yu Shang Restaurant extremely full. Clearly, this did not stop me from eating. I ate my fill of the 11 plates (standard Chinese food -- mostly cooked chicken, fish, and lobster in various sauces). Deciding I wanted someting sweet, I went to the Chinese bakery afterwards. Bought a mango foam cake (ate  that), and a huge bag of blueberry buttered cookies (ate that too while feeling disgustingly full). Thinking I wouldn't eat anymore, I decided to finish the night with karaoke with my friends. Of course, after karaoke, we went to Harvey's and I ordered a veggie burger (in an effort to be healthy, ha).

So let's count this:

Maple Cinnamon Bagel 270 calories
Apple and Cinnamon Muffin 350 calories
Cinnamon Scone 500 calories
Yogurt + Bran Flakes x3 300 calories
Bowl of Cabbage + Soy Sauce 100 calories
Chinese Dinner ~600 calories
Mango Foam Cake 350 calories
Butter Cookies 1000 calories
Veggie Burger 400 calories
Total  3870 calories

I think I have an eating problem.