Blowing Your Diet

Let's say you are dieting. Taking in 300-600 less calories than what you spend, so to lose 1/2 to 1 pound a week. You might be working out via weights, cardio or even better, them together. That way you you don't lose muscle (maybe even gain a little) while dieting... also you can eat more that way!

Anyway, let's say you completely blow your diet. I do this too. Someone brings over an apple pie or a pumpkin pie, I can't hold back. I must devour. Granted, I'm not trying to lose weight, but I still try to keep a healthy diet for fitness gains and overall health. So you're like me and eat not one slice, but two slices of pie. Boom. You blew your diet. Right? Maybe. It all depends on how you react to blowing your diet. If you think, "Oh, man. I blew my diet. I guess I might as well eat some cookies and ice-cream now. Doesn't matter because I blew it anyway!" then, yes you blew your diet. You'll probably gain some weight from that rampage through desserts. If you think like this instead, "Hm. I kind of blew my diet, but if I don't eat anymore junk food today, I won't gain weight! I just won't lose any." then you didn't blow your diet. You didn't lose weight that day, but you didn't gain any either! That's fine, as long as you don't make a habit of it. If you continue using that thought process throughout the week you won't lose any weight that week. You won't gain any, but you still didn't move closer to your goal. What I try to do during this time of year (I call it pie season) I try to limit myself to one or two days when I can have a pie slice or two. I still don't eat your average cookie, but I might it a pumpkin one once in awhile instead of a pie slice.


If you're not like me and are in love with chocolate, not fruity pies, your battle is harder. Chocolate is always in season. So eating chocolate desserts twice a week all year round (not 1-3 months) isn't going to allow you to lose much weight, if any. What do you do? You eat chocolate once a week if you can't cut it out. If you do cheat and eat more cake than that, make sure you tell yourself (set an alarm too) to have a painfully hard workout some time soon after that cake. Soon that cake may not seem worth doing interval training for 5 miles or doing one hour of hard interval weight training. Oh, and if it's only the chocolate flavor your crave (not the cake, cookie, candy bar or something-else-not-so-good-for-you), then maybe you should get into protein shakes. Whey protein shakes come in a bunch of flavors, taste pretty good, are high in protein and are low in calories.

Train hard, eat well (veggies: BFF, Best Friends for Fitness), rest well (at LEAST 7 hours of sleep, 8 or 9 hours is better), avoid (or manage) stress and you'll get fit.