We have all been there before. You think that you have everything under control and all of a sudden a relentless craving rushes over us, leaving us weak and vulnerable to temptation. Let me be the first to say that this is a common occurrence and happens to everyone. Even the cleanest eaters will find themselves noshing on something very unclean once in a while. The secret is to not stress out about it.
When you cheat on your diet, the first thing you need to do is forgive yourself and move on. Focus your energy on avoiding the urges in the future as you cannot do anything to change the past. Keeping a food journal will help in situations like this, where you can document your feelings about what you just ate and how it made you feel. Will power comes from the ability to understand how something is going to affect you in the future. Next time you have another unstoppable craving, reading about how you felt the last time you cheated may be the exact thing you need to help you stop and think about your decision.
A lot of the time we cheat on our diets simply because there wasn’t anything around that could have satisfied us in a healthy way. For example, if you have a crunchy craving, air popped popcorn or mixed nuts may have been a much healthier choice had they been around. Or, a homemade beef jerky loaded with proteins and less sodium could have stood in for a salty craving. Whatever the case may be, ensuring you have a variety of healthy snacks available on hand, either at home, work or even in your car, can make sticking to your diet an easier task.
Remember, a cheat once in a while is not going to make or break your weight loss efforts; however, if you find yourself constantly breaking out of your diet, you may have to think about why you are dieting in the first place and if you are emotionally ready for such a step. Binge eating is a sign of an eating disorder and that is a difficult problem to overcome on your own. You should speak to your doctor if you find that cheating on your diet becomes uncontrollable.
Nigel has written on lots of varied topics over the past few years. Have a look at one of his websites tourmalineflatiron.org which gives information about purchasing a tourmaline flat iron.
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