Toitumine – Lehekülg 69 – Nourish, Train & Flourish

Say what? Cheating on your diet successfully? Is it possible? Am I crazy?

Maybe a little bit…

But I honestly believe that you can cheat successfully! 🙂

Here’s how.

Rule #1. Learn to cheat small.

That’s the most important point I have to emphasize. I fail with this one all the time but I’m learning and improving! Cheat small: eat only a small portion of your cheat food. Don’t stuff your face with it! Don’t binge! If cheating happens unplanned, don’t freak out. Don’t think: “I messed up today, so let’s get crazy and eat everything bad.” This has been my thought more than once and it’s bad thinking! If you mess up a little, that’s OK. You are human. Bad decisions sometimes happen. You slipped a little, let it go. Continue your day as usual. You probably won’t even gain weight (long term!) because of that! Chill.

Rule #2. Don’t beat yourself up.

I do this all the time. Mess up and beat myself up about it. Don’t! Just don’t. Again: you are human. Remember that. Try not to mess up often but if it happens… well, it has happened to everyone trying to lose weight. Trust me.

Rule #3. Don’t starve yourself after cheating.

One day you give your body something it’s not used eating anymore. The next day you give your body nothing but water or only a little food. What is your body supposed to think? It’s going to get confused. You cheated? Continue your week or day as you would normally. No overexercising or starving yourself. Your body shouldn’t be shocked.

Rule #4. Not a cheat day but a cheat meal.

If you’re one of those people who have regular cheat days, turn them into cheat meals. Why indulge for a whole day? Have your cheat meal in the morning time so that your body has time to burn it up successfully. This is a personal preference thing but I would suggest only one special meal instead of one day. Less damage.

Rule #5. Don’t cheat too often.

If you rarely cheat, it’s probably not going to affect your weightloss. But cheating is a slippery road! You need to find out how many cheat meals your body can handle. It’s very personal and different with every person. No thumb rule or mathematical equation. Sorry to dissappoint you.

Rule #6. Don’t “live” only for your cheat meals.

You should be happy with your everyday diet. If you hate every other meal than cheat meal and “live” for only those cheat meals… Then your diet isn’t sustainable. Find a diet / nutrition plan that works for you, that you enjoy and can practise for the rest of your life. If you don’t enjoy your nutrition plan, you will eventually gain the weight back. Trust me, I’ve been there more than once.

Rule #7. Don’t let a cheat meal become a cheat day, cheat week or the end of your weightloss journey.

This point turns back to rule #1: learn to cheat small! If you cheat, it doesn’t mean that this day is lost. It isn’t! The moment you stop eating your cheat food, you win. If you can stop your cheat eating, no matter if you have been cheating for one meal, day or week: you are winner! Always go back on your normal track. Don’t feel like a failure and keep cheating. Move on.

That’s pretty much about it. My seven rules how to cheat successfully on any diet. And if everything fails, hey: feeling too full and heavy will remind you why it’s so great to eat healthy. Find a positive in every negative! 🙂

Do you have any tips or thoughts about cheat eating? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

In Workout Week posts I will tell you everything about my last week’s workouts.

Monday was BodyPumping day at the local fitness club. My best friend also decided to come although we both hate the equipment there. I had a good workout! My weights were what they usually are and I felt good.
Warm-up: 3,5+3,5 kg
Squats: 8,5+8,5 kg
Chest: 6+6 kg
Back: 6+6 kg
Triceps: 2,5 kg; 5 kg
Biceps: 3,5+3,5 kg; 2,5+2,5 kg
Lunges: 6+6 kg
Shoulders: 3,5+3,5 kg; 2,5+2,5 kg
Abs: –

Tuesday was swimming day. On Sunday the lady who sits by the pool, collects our tickets and makes sure we don’t drown (:D) told me that if the pool is almost empty, I can feel free and swim over the 45 minute limit. The same lady was there on Tuesday, the pool got empty at the end of the seance and I decided to swim extra 15 minutes. I did 500 m of breaststroke, 500 m of front crawl, 500 m of backstroke and extra: 250 m of breaststroke and 250 m of front crawl. 2000 metres in total, that’s my new personal record! 🙂

Wednesday was Zumba day. I love this workout more and more with every session. It’s not too complicated or intense and it’s so much fun. Totally recommended to everyone.

Thursday: BodyPump. Last time at the local club here in Ida-Virumaa. Thank god. Can’t wait for normal equipment and conditions! It was a good workout, I really got tired and sweaty. Oh, since I got to the club early and got cold just standing and waiting, I had some extra time to run for about 13 minutes and around 2,2K. The BodyPump class takes place in an indoor track-and-field stadium (eesti keeles: kergejõustiku hall), so there’s a lap to run on 🙂 I actually liked running indoors to my surprise.

Friday was the last Zumba class with my BFF for a while. We’re both going to be busy with school and not working out together until March. But Zumba was still good! My friend has great tracks and choreography for us, I really like the songs she picks. Thanks, Triin! 🙂

Saturday: 45 minutes of swimming. 1,5K of front crawl. I was angry with myself and let everything out in training.

On Sunday I did something new: intervals aka fartlek running. I went to Ahtme Spordihall and did 15 minutes of warm-up, then 2+3+4+5+4+3+2 minutes fast with 2 minutes of steady running in between the fast intervals. I ended my workout with 10 minutes of slow running. In total it came to exactly 1 hour. Fast was around 5 min per km, steady around 6 min per km and slow 7+ min per km. All in total around 8,7 km. I could have pushed myself even harder but since it was my first time intervalling, I really didn’t know how hard to push. I’ll be smarter next time 🙂

In total:

3 hours 30 minutes of walking

2 hours of BodyPump

2 hours of Zumba

1 hour 45 minutes of swimming

1 hour of running

My workouts were great this week: 7 workout sessions in 7 days. That’s awesome. But there’s such a big BUT. My nutrition. It hasn’t been like this during my whole time of LCHF (Christmas and Thailand included). 3 words: cheating, overeating and chaos. All week long! 😦

Cheating with everything but mostly lots of grains. Ate a few big portions of porridge this week, many slices of (rye) bread and some sugar. This behaviour is so not me! The scales ofcourse reflected everything… I haven’t seen numbers like THAT since May 2013. A HUGE disaster! Overeating (or binging) is another huge topic. Too much low carb foods and also too much cheat foods. And chaos. Chaotic behaviour all week long. This week has been catastrophic! 😦 I’m really upset and things need to change. Professional help is perhaps needed…

: Cooked millet (eesti keeles: hirss, kollatang). Never liked it… Until now I guess.

: Rye bread. From koduleivad.ee

: Oatmeal with bran. Craved it and ate it. From quakeroats.ca

In general I’m feeling like what’s the point of blogging about nutrition and sports if I’m failing big time? Who needs to read about my cheats? my weightgain not -loss? my bad mood and stress? No one.

No one.

New week, new semester at school and a new beginning? Hope so. Because if things continue this way, I’m going to back in February 2013 soon. I just have to stay positive and keep going!

Rubriik: Toitumine

How to cheat successfully on any diet