Read 35 times since Saturday, January 14, 2012
Most people think that there are only 2 options with a healthy diet. You are either on it, or off, and there is nothing in-between. This inflexibility is what often keeps people from achieving long term success because a day where you "fall off the wagon" is often seen as a ruining the entire diet and if your diet is "ruined" what is the point in continuing with it? This is a mindset that I encounter a lot as a Glasgow personal trainer and nothing could be further from the truth. An occasional day off your diet can prolong a healthy eating routine if you react to it correctly. The danger is that you are exposing yourself to addictive food which is like a recovering alcoholic having the occasional drink. That taste of the thing you have to try to live without can really hurt your resolve.
A lot of diets call for a cheat day every week where you can eat whatever you want. Much of the reasoning behind the idea of cheat days is that they make diets more marketable because the diet seems quite permissive, allowing you to pig out once a week. I don't think weekly "go crazy" cheat days are a great idea because it promotes surging insulin levels that prime in the presence of a massive calorie surplus which is EXACTLY what the body needs to store lots of fat. The calorie intake alone on a cheat day can be enough to wipe out days of healthy nutrition. If you maintain a 500 calorie deficit 6 days a week it only takes a cheat day where you exceed your maintenance calorie intake by 1500, easily done with pizza, ice cream and beer, to spoil 3 days effort.
When starting a healthy eating plan you should schedule some days you can eat, drink and do what you want. These days should cover special occasions, like birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas but not "Saturdays" and stop you missing out on celebrations. This lets you know there are occasional days of treats, restaurants and late nights scattered amongst all the productive days of whole food, home cooked meals, drinking water, early nights and focussed training. Remember that you are driving the wagon, you can chose where it stops and for how long, but keep in mind that the point of the journey is to get you to your final destination and the more times you stop and get off the longer the trip will take. Iain Smith (MPhil/CSCS) owns Standout Gym, an independent warehouse gym in Glasgow, focusing on weight loss. He offers small group training as an affordable alternative to Glasgow personal training. Iain is a former international decathlete with 17 years coaching experience. www.standoutgym.com.
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