What to Do If You Have Cheated

We’ve all done it. The week went fabulously with reasonable meals of chicken, egg whites, fruits and veggies. You have been getting your workout on too and feeling great! Then the weekend came and everything went down the shitter. You may have gone to your favorite restaurant and SWORE you would eat something healthy, but after 3 glasses of wine you ate 2 appetizers, an entree, and of course you couldn’t leave without the to-die-for desert. To add to the madness it happened to be a late meal and you ended up going home and to bed soon after dinner. The next morning you feel like a fat and bloated lard and everything is ruined. What do you do??

Let’s not freak out and be more methodical about this. One KEY thing to remember about diet and fitness programs is be PREPARED for obstacles. Accept the fact that you are human and you are going to make mistakes sometimes. These one-time mistakes are ok, but throwing away your whole diet program because of one mistake is NOT ok.

When you wake up the following morning from your pig-out, there is a particular process that you should follow to minimize the damage done. Here it is:

• DO NOT skip breakfast.
  • I know you feel full and you don’t feel like eating any more food for the next week and a half, but you don’t want to slow down your metabolism. Yes, your calories for the next day should be severely reduced to make up for the abundance of calories the previous day, but reduce them later in the day.
• Eat only protein.
  • My guess is that your pig-out did not consist of too much chicken and egg whites the previous day, and chances are you ate an abundance of carbohydrates and sugar. For more info on how this affects the body read this. Since insulin spikes can make you fat, the day after a large cheat you definitely don’t want your insulin to spike. So stay away from the carbs. It’s only for a day, you can handle it.
• Keep careful watch on your portion control.
  • Notice how when you go a long period of time without eating anything, the next meal is smaller? It seems like you get full much faster! This is not by chance. Your stomach has the ability to shrink and expand depending on how much you fill it. If you fill it to capacity, the next time you eat it will let you fill it a little more. If you don’t fill it your stomach will contract.  Therefore, you may not feel full when you are done eating. Deal with it for a day.
• Do a light workout.
  • Chances are you are mildly hung over so you should do anything too hardcore anyway. However, some light cardio or a circuit training workout will make you feel better and burn at least a few calories. This workout is NOT to lose fat so don’t treat it as such.

Follow these steps for the one day that is following your cheat and you will be back in action the following day. People tend to have this insane way of thinking that one they f*** up once they are justified in doing it again. If that wasn’t the biggest rant of insanity I have every heard I don’t know what is!