We’ve all been there: we jump into new diets and exercise plans with such vigor, such excitement! We believe wholeheartedly that this time we’re going to make it work and come out of things with the physique of our dreams. We're confident that we can check off "athletic" on our internet dating profile.
And then it just…doesn’t happen. Maybe we start off strong, and then before we know which end of the jelly donut is up, we’re back at square one. But how does it happen? Ahh, read on and discover what we’ve all been doing wrong, my friends.
You aren’t eating enough
It’s not a wonder to figure out why when people try to diet, they instinctively feel that one of the first, most key steps is to cut back their food intake. It makes sense, right? You want to lose weight, so you eat less. Well, yes and no. It’s always a good idea to consume wisely (lean protein and lots of veggies, etc.) in reasonable portions. But what many people overlook is that “reasonable portions” also means not too small.
Your body needs certain things to function. When you’re in the middle of a more-intense-than-usual exercise regime, it needs even more of those things it gets from food. The harder you push your body, the faster it’s going to consume its food fuel. That’s a good thing. That’s how you lose weight: speeding up your body’s rate at which food is metabolized through pounding it out on the treadmill and not eating cupcakes for breakfast.
But when you starve your stomach, your body goes into panic mode a little. It starts worrying that it won’t get the nutrients it needs so it not only works slower rather than faster, it also begins hoarding what it already has. That means fat. As trite and true advice would tell us, you gotta spend money to make money. And you have to eat to lose weight.
No such thing as a guilty pleasure
Call me a bit hedonistic but I think the worst phrase to be introduced into the English vernacular is “guilty pleasure”. There’s guilt and then there’s pleasure. I’ve felt guilty about cheating on a math test in school or maybe stealing a friend’s boyfriend but never about chocolate. Chocolate never hurt anyone! In fact, I would argue that the occasional consumption of what we desire staves off some serious cases of the grumpies. Which benefits everyone.
Along those same lines, being overly strict with yourself as far as what you can and cannot indulge in while you're dieting is a dangerous line to toe, my friends. Just like that really hot but, sadly, really gay man in your office, the more you tell yourself you can’t have something, the more you want it. You’re only human. You might, at any moment, feel weak or a brief sense of I-don’t-give-a-damn-! liberation and give in to temptation.
If you’ve been telling yourself, “absolutely NO cinnamon swirly sugar cakes! None at all, ever again” and you happen to love cinnamon swirly sugar cakes, you’re going to want one in a bad way. And at some point, it will happen: you will dive in. But instead of eating just one, you might eat five because you’ve been depriving yourself. And that kind of a setback can be disheartening enough to derail your diet in a big way.
Instead of quitting the things you enjoy altogether, take it easy on yourself. Life should still be sweet and a little naughty sometimes. Try setting up a system of rewards for yourself; say, when you lose 5 pounds, you get to reward yourself with a night of cocktails with pals (I’m assuming you’ve savvy enough about slimming down to cut alcohol. Major calories), or getting to eat one of those little sugary devils you love so much when you’ve reached a new distance goal jogging.
Knowing you have something to look forward to makes you far less likely to fall of the wagon and gives you an extra bit of incentive to push yourself.
