Nobody can follow a perfect diet all the time, this just isn’t realistic. In reality, it’s probably beneficial to expect dietary deviations.
The critical element here is making sure that your deviations don’t derail your progress.
So here is how to minimize the damage from cheating on your diet:
1. Slow down digestion all at all costs: If you are going to splurge try to incorporate as much roughage as possible. This will minimize the negative impact on your blood sugar even if the cheat foods are high in calories.
2. Drink lots of water beforehand: Water helps with digestion and it also helps with making you feel full. Thus, drinking lots of water before you binge is a great way to reduce the amount of food you are about to eat. Water will also help reduce bloating from high sodium meals.
3. Cheat after exercise if possible: Immediately after an intense exercise session your muscles change in such a way that they can absorb higher levels of calories. Thus, if you cheat right after an exercise session you are less likely to gain fat.
4. Use sugar substitutes: If you have an insatiable sweet tooth use sugar substitutes to keep it in check. The good thing about sugar substitutes is that they taste just like sugar, but don’t have the calories. Just make sure you don’t overdo it here since we still don’t know if they are safe in large amounts.
5. Limit your cheating: Many experts recommend having an entire cheat day to speed up fat loss. But in all honesty, this concept is flawed on many levels. Instead, do your best to restrict your cheating to one meal only. This will minimize the damage while providing psychological relief.
6. If you are feeling really deprived go all out: If you are feeling extremely deprived forget about all of the above and eat as much as you can in one sitting. One meal isn’t going to have much of an effect on your progress, but a continued sense of oppressive deprivation will eventually break you down.
Nobody is perfect, so don’t expect your diet to be perfect. If you do, you will set yourself up for major disappointment!
Writer Katherine Crawford, an exercise physiologist and recent arm fat sufferer, teaches how to do arm toning exercises. Figure out how to get sexy and toned arms by exploring her blog with shake weight reviews now!
