Motivation Monday: Suriving cheat related set backs

Set backs are a part of life. No matter what your goal you are going to have set backs.

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Knowing this information doesn’t make it one bit palatable. I’m an over achiever and I suffer the highest level of frustration when I have a diet related set back. It’s the worst! Super-human, over achievers don’t give in to the urge to cheat! What???
No matter how hard I push, or how much I want to reach my goals, sometimes I’m my own worst enemy. And while my lifestyle is very clean and an occasional binge may look to others like a non issue, in my head it’s the ONLY ISSUE and it’s bad.

Type A is for ARRRRRGGGGGH

I know you too have had moments where you just said “whatever” and ate and drank outside your meal plan. Maybe you run all the scenarios in your head of how you’ll”work it off tomorrow”, or how you “owe it to yourself for being good on your plan”. Been there! Frankly, slip ups, and over indulging happen to most fitness people so it’s really not that big of a deal. Just as having one healthy meal won’t make you “a healthy person” eating an unhealthy meal won’t undo your hard work. Now the real world is much different than what’s pounding around in a Type A brain.

When I come off a over lax cheat, the next whole week is a mess. My body can hardly function any more on bad food. I’m usually sick at my stomach, bloated and feel unmotivated. My next workouts are miserable and I’m a raving crab apple from the sugar-YOU KNOW it’s always sugar. The next day feels like day one. It’s miserable. My brain says.. “you get what you deserve”. “You should know better”. “You ruined your progress.”

Sound at all familiar?

I never say “I might as well give up” because I do know better, but I sure do teeter on “why do you even bother”.

 

Taking back the brain:

Let me just say that my brain is no where anyone would want to live.  I notice a lot more negative self talk after any sugar, white flour, white potato or simple carbs, sanctioned or not. So I recognize this as chemical.

I also do know that repetitive negative self talk is a behavior and it creates little grooves in the grey matter of the brain. You can cease to feel negatively about yourself, but that little record of negativity will still play in your head. You can stop that by stopping that behavior and changing it to something else. Switch the negative to the positive and those little grooves will change too!

 

My post food disaster protocol
Waking out of a bad food coma with a sugar hangover and pink icing my hair is no fun. Getting myself back together is like walking though fire in a gasoline G-string. For the next 4-5 days I feel like the Stay-puff marshmallow man. I usually dress all in black to mourn my loss of self control. That’s a joke, but black is slimming so….

 

My Secrets to surviving a cheat related setback.
Consider this..

Leave it behind!!  It’s over!! 

 

Depression is in the past:
If you are down, you are thinking about the past. What has happened, happened and it’s over. Slip ups don’t define us.
Put that cheat in the past. Don’t think about it, don’t dwell on it. Don’t talk about it. Don’t panic and tell the world you ate cheese.
Don’t commiserate with others. It’s over. Let it go.

 

Fear is in the future
If you are worried that you will never make your goal you are thinking in the future. Fear=future.

 

Be in the present
The best advice I have ever received is to put the past away, only think about what I can do today.
I will set a goal for today and give myself  a success. I know I’m not running on all cylinders so I will be kind to myself and not make that goal 4 hours of cardio. My general practice is to fight the urge to over compensate at the gym and stick to my original plan. I also set my water goal and try to flush.. These are very positive steps that give me control of my food choices. Now is NOT the time to cut back on all your meals and skip carbs. I eat on my meal plan as written. I KNOW I can do that even if I have to just do it for today.

HACK!  JUST GO BACK TO NORMAL MACROS!!
Resist the urge to drop calories down to poverty macros to compensate. We tell our clients to just go back to your normal routine and it will sort itself out.  It does.

The best protocol for me is to simply look at my plan as a daily goal. I know what my big picture is. Living in the present keeps me focused.

I will string together successes each day and focus on change. My results will come in spite of my self!

How do you handle cheat related set backs?