Some fitness folks out there are anti-cheat meal because they believe giving into a craving or a temptation will only open the junk food flood gates. Others believe a cheat meal is a good way to reward your hard work and also stay sane. For me personally I think its ridiculous to say that there are certain foods I'm never going to eat again. In the past my struggle with cheat meals was that I felt guilty. I felt like that was flushing a perfect week down the drain. My mentality on this changed once I started seeing the after a not so perfect weekend my weight on the scale was still the same on Monday morning as it had been Friday. In my head, eating out for dinner or snacking on some chips and salsa was going to make the scale go up. But I've been proven wrong time and time again. Now I'm ok with a not so perfect weekend. This doesn't mean that it's ok to go crazy though. If I'm craving a big pancake breakfast, then fine i'll make it, but this means the rest of my day needs to be on track. I don't look at my weekend as a chance to go wild and eat any and everything in sight, but if theres something in particular I'd like to snack on or have for a meal, that I don't allow myself to have on a regular basis, then I'm gonna go for it (in moderation). This works well for me for because I have made so much progress that I don't want to revert back to my old ways. I'm happy with shopping for a size 6 body instead of a 12, so I know that even if I do have say pizza for dinner, I'm only going to allow myself 2 slices because I don't want to over do it like I always did in the past. Cheating doesn't mean pigging out, but a little indulgence here and there won't hurt when you give 110% all other times.
It's really important to know that nutrition is a major part of weight loss and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. My #1 trouble area is my tummy, it's the first place I put weight and its the hardest for me to lose. Now I could do all the crunches in the world, run until I can't anymore, and bust my butt doing hours of cardio, but that will only get me so far. Abs are made in the kitchen. If you want you're tummy to be flat, you have to eat clean, thats all there is too it. Now definition and that six pack comes from ab work, but losing the goo is part cardio, but a bigger part nutrition. Have you ever really looked at a food label before? All those grams of added sugar, all the fat, the sodium...none of that garbage is good for us. Half of that sugar is added, and most of the times its one of the first ingredients listed. The sodium makes you bloated, and the sugar and fat well you know what that does. It goes straight to your love handles, or hips, and it sits there. And it taunts you every time you look in the mirror. Now you would think that would get us to stop eating it. We know bad food = a muffin top = not happy with what we see, yet we still throw that bag of chips in our shopping cart, we still come home and eat 5 cookies to make ourselves "feel better" after a bad day. Why are we torturing ourselves??
If you go to any bookstore or search their inventory online, the amount of diet books that are available is ridiculous! And to me, reading them is a big fat waste of time! We all know how to lose weight, I mean really its not rocket science. We know that bad foods and lack of exercise is going to make us fat. And we all know that choosing healthier foods and regular exercise will not only keep us in good health but will also shed unwanted pounds. So then why the need for all these books? Because people want an easier answer. We want something that won't take much of our time (because heaven forbid we miss our favorite tv show) and we don't want something thats too hard or going to make us break a sweat (because heaven forbid we push ourselves). Instead of spending the money towards a gym membership, tons of people spend that money on diet books and pills that will never get them one step closer to feeling better about themselves. All they'll gain is a library of books, the knowledge to be able to change, and a cabinet full of stimulants that didn't work as promised...but a sense of accomplishment and pride, they won't find that. It would be completely ridiculous for me to start applying for jobs in the healthcare field. I haven't put in the hours of studying, the years of schooling, I haven't worked hard for a nursing degree, so how could I expect to get a job in that field? It's completely unrealistic. A well paying job only comes after you've put in the time and work to complete the training. The same applies to losing weight. You will not see the results you desire unless you are willing to put forth the time and hard work. You can't expect to drop a size or two if you're only doing the bare minimum. You won't lose that tummy if you're constantly making excuses for why you can't give up certain foods.
When you first start its hard, and you may feel like you don't really know what you are doing. But there are so many resources out there, so many other people who have decided that they want more for themselves. And the longer you stick with clean eating and a work out routine, the more it starts to become second nature. I no longer look at what I'm doing as just trying to lose weight. This is my life now. This is who I am, who I've become. Working out is not something I need to find the time to do, just like I have to be at work at 9am, I have to be at that gym by 530am.
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