This one is to those of us who have fallen off the wagon, so to speak, concerning their diet. Weeks have gone by of clean eating, you’ve dropped a few pounds, have been hitting the gym and you haven’t touched a McDonald’s in however long, and then a disaster. You slip up and demolish a Maccies breakfast, complete with full sugar coke and a muffin, pizza for lunch, KFC for dinner, and a load of chocolate sprinkled throughout. The dust has settled and you’re sitting there amidst a mound of Hershey’s wrappers and cookie crumbs, and you break down. How do you deal with it?
1. Come to terms with it.
The first and simplest thing on this list is to come to terms with what has happened. You have eaten a hell of a lot of calories and you might still be a bit hungry, but you know yourself that you’ve eaten more than enough, so what you feel can simply not be hunger. What you feel is the sugar. You need to ride it out and accept that what’s done is done. Don’t go throwing it all back up because that starts a whole new unhealthy cycle that you really don’t want to go down. Own your decisions and say to yourself: right, I cannot control the past, but I can still get to grips with the future. You, from this moment on, have complete control over what goes into your mouth. Just hold out and wait until tomorrow. It can be fixed.
2. Don’t weigh yourself.
Simply put, you don’t want to jump on those scales after a binge; you’ll either lose hope and think what’s the point? or you’ll feel better and think you can carry on with your gorge. The majority of weight will be water weight at this stage anyway, so no use in beating yourself up over it.
3. Drink water.
Ah, the answer to any fitness question: drink more water. Well, not really, but its importance cannot be understated. Not only will drinking more water fill you up for longer but it will also decrease bloating. The more water you drink, the less you retain. And, more often than not, people confuse their dehydration for hunger, so it’s best to have a glass or two before you go rummaging through the cupboards for snacks.
4. Be forgiving.
Tomorrow is a new day and you can always start fresh. This isn’t a free pass of course, because then you’ll be using that excuse every day, but the occasional unhealthy meal will not do a whole lot of damage. Just think how long it takes to gain weight. I mean real, permanent weight. So if you look at yourself in the mirror a couple of days after a binge and see something pretty disgusting staring back at you, chances are it’s just in your head. The problems arise when it is a regular occurence. You surely don’t need me to tell you that 3 dominos in a week will do its damage eventually, but forgive yourself the occassional slip up so long as you jump right back on it when you’re all clear. We are only human, after all.
5. Change your routine.
This is for those who have tried all kinds of diets and have consistently failed. You’ve tried it time and time again and it just doesn’t work for you. In this instance, I invite you to think about the definition of insanity: trying something over and over again and expecting different results. The same applies here. If you’ve tried a diet 50 times then the chances are that the 51st will fair you no better. You need to alter your view on food, and what better time than after a binge? Now is the time you can get excited about trying something new. My suggestion, comb over everything you eat in a day, and look for healthy substitutes for parts of them. Then, when you’re used to eating those things, comb over your diet again and do the same. Keep doing this until you can see no other way to make your meals healthier.
The Writer's Block 