Hope Mike doesn't mind!
I just find him really honest and inspiring.....
Mike Scott's No Willpower Required Newsletter
The problem with a lot of people who overeat is that they overeat to cheer up! Therefore, when you are on a diet you think you aren't very happy and you can't eat to cheer up about it!
The problem then comes when you do eat.....because you have eaten you actually get a few seconds of nice stuff followed by a feeling that you have failed. You then have a learnt behaviour that when you have failed you use food to make yourself happy again and you get stuck in the circle.
The reality is, of course, that if you do eat something you haven't "blown" a diet, you haven't "fallen off the diet wagon" and you certainly aren't a huge failure. You made a choice to stop your diet while you had some calories, and that is about it!
If you originally had ten stone to lose and when you had reduced by five stone you ate a Mars Bar and went straight back to a calorie controlled diet afterwards, then you would still be slim at the end of it. Therefore, when you do step off of your diet and decide conciously to eat something, just accept that you made a decision in life, no different than what to wear today.
Now of course, I would question what is more important to you. Do you want to be slim and healthy or would you rather have that instant food fix? If you really want the food that much then don't pull yourself to bits over it.
I chatted with a couple this week who had bought each other an Easter Egg for Easter and sat and ate the whole egg on Sunday night. They were absolutely devastated they had done it and couldn't understand why.....
I asked them a few guided questions and it was about the two of them sharing an experience together and relaxing on the sofa enjoying themselves. Now funnily enough that seems pretty reasonable to me!! What they needed to understand is that they chose to do it. Eating for the next 3 days as they had "blown" their diet would also be a choice, and a choice that, I am glad to say, they didn't take.
Let's turn this to you! When you "break" your diet do you ever then think "Well I might as well just eat now as I have ruined it"....I can remember breaking a popular diet in the late 1990's and literally going on a binge for 2 weeks. I had not eaten carb for so long that once I was off the diet I was making up for lost time. I chose to stop that diet but I also then chose to keep eating! Had I just of had the slice of bread and got back to the diet then who knows what success I could, and would, have created.
Now I am not saying that the best thing to do isn't to just do a diet 100% properly as that is the quickest way to get slim but if you do "wobble" then just move on and going back to last week's newsletter...don't beat yourself up!
So, the next time you choose to break your diet then don't blow it...don't see it as an opportunity to just eat loads. Just accept you made a choice and then make a choice to keep going. It isn't a race to be slim....to me it is all about getting slim in a healthy, safe and controlled manner, and much more importantly, staying slim.
As always have an amazing week and talk Saturday!
Mike
