It’s the weekend, and your buddies decide to go out for beers. One leads to a few, and next thing you 
know, you’re eating a huge plate of nachos to yourself.
Or maybe it’s after a holiday, you’re at the grocery store, and all the junk food is on sale. Instead of the healthy dinner you were planning, you decide to buy a jumbo bag of candies instead, and snack on those throughout the week. (or day!)
So what does one do in situations when you’ve eaten an entire cheese pizza, then washed it down with more snacks because… it’s Saturday.
Here are my five tips for getting back on track.
- Reflect instead of internalize: Eating lots of food doesn’t make you a bad person, a bad decision-maker, or a weak person. It might have been something that you psychologically needed at the time. That’s why reflection is a much better approach. Ask yourself, “Why did I choose to do this?” “What factors made it easy to do this?” “Do I want to do this again?” “What steps do I need to do in order to prevent this?” These questions, rather than stating, “I’m weak.” “I’m so fat.” “I’m pathetic.” will help you make dietary decisions that work best for you.
- Don’t use exercise as a form of punishment: Exercise should help you improve your health in conjunction with diet. Too often do people use exercise as a way to burn calories. Exercise should be performed for physical empowerment. Plus, this could lead to exercise purge, Bulimia or Anorexia.
- Focus on your current plan: So what if you ate an entire pizza in one sitting last night?! What are you going to do tonight that will make you feel fulfilled and empowered as an individual? What’s done is done, and all you can do is move forward and try and reach your full potential.
- Write your goals and post them where you can see them: I post my goals in big bold writing on the fridge, because I’m guaranteed to be there at least 4-5 times a day. If you have a habit of buying chocolate scones with your coffee, and you want to break that habit. Write down “BUY CHOCOLATE SCONES ONLY ON SATURDAYS!” and post it somewhere easily accessible. This will help it solidify in your mind better, and help you stay accountable.
Remember that relapse is normal, and that it’s not the end of the world: Read my post about 6-Tips to Help you Re-emerge from a Fitness Relapse.
