Today I was on Facebook and one of my friend's posts said "why is it so hard to lose and easy to gain"...then Travis sent me an article and one of the excerpts from it explained it pretty well. Here it is.
You can do okay with one cheat meal a week, but if you decide that you’re going to do more than that; be ready to up the frequency of your cardio. But even if you are prepared to do this, it is still not ideal; unless you are genetically gifted you will almost never be able to exercise enough to mask a bad diet. Even some professional athletes have problems with weight control because of poor eating practices despite the high volume of training they undergo. The reason for this is because a great cardio session can help you burn anywhere between 300 calories or 500 calories if you are really dedicated and plan on hitting the treadmill for a long time. However, in one meal at a restaurant or at a fast food place, it is not hard to consume 800+ calories in one sitting. So if you begin to increase the frequency of your cheat meals in the hoped that cardio will make up for it; you will quickly get caught up in a race you may very well lose.This is what I have been struggling with this week. I have one little cheat and then I am screwed. I can be good 95% of the day and then 5% of the time I make poor decisions. Isn't 95% still an A? I feel like I am giving it such a good effort and doing so good. I am proud of my 95% but it makes me so mad that 5% can give you an F and make you fail. I don't feel like a failure though. I have got to be on point. No meeting in the middle. There will be time for that when I am on maintenance, but for now if I am going to reach my goal I have got to be in weight loss mode. In order for me to succeed I have got to do better. The good news is that usually at this point is when I give up and I dont feel like giving up, I am just having a little pit stop along my road to success. Fact of the matter is that I have been spending too much time at the rest stop though. The past few weeks have been bad. I haven't lost much weight and even gained last week. I haven't exercised. I have been under lots and lots of stress and I haven't done a perfect job at logging my food. I have also slipped into eating too many meals out. I have been on the run so much lately that it is just hard but it is no excuse. I just have to keep packing my lunch, on CPR nights I need to pack my dinner too. I know that I can do it. While it has taken me a long time to get under 200...there is one thing that I know for sure. Once I get there...I will never go back!
I am sooo right there with you! I hit my slump about 4 months in. I'm not giving up or giving in, but I have taken most of the summer off... and it shows with a 5 pound gain. But, I look at is as "hey, I'm still 20 pounds lighter than I was, so I have a great re-starting point". It's sooo hard once we get out of the habits though. The food thing KILLS me. :( But, I do find that the more I exercise the more I want to eat healthy because I don't want to do all that work for nothing. lol WE CAN DO THIS!!
ReplyDeleteA 5% cheat is almost exactly one meal a week. So like the article said- it's not one meal that kills you it's several. Be honest with yourself. 20% may not kill you once you are in maintenance mode, but as you said you are still in goal mode. Don't forget about Subway, either. Even if you are in a hurry it only takes 5-10 minutes to run in for a healthy, low point sub. Keep up the good work! I think you need to set a goal to be at by Race for the Cure.
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