Surrendering the diet…how common it is and what a mistake we all do!

I know…I know when we start a diet, it all seems so easy, and we’re full of energy and so happy about it, so we start, and the first day is so cool, we’re excited about it, then comes the second day, and it’s ok, now it’s Wednesday, oufff I made it, then Thursday arrives J we’re out with friends, and they’re eating, sharing their meals, and worse sharing deserts, and we re only looking at them and thinking:” why do I have to say NO?” and we surrender…and start eating a bit (or a lot depending on your level of guilt) from everything. Well, the night comes, we go to sleep and think:” how stupid was I to surrender to the diet? What have I done? All was going so perfect, I was even starting to feel lighter!”J

I am sure this is familiar to you. Everyone on earth must have experienced this scene once in their life! And if not…ahhhh then you’re sooooo lucky! ;)

Well, the thing is we must be realistic, our main requirement when we establish goals is to attain success and that is usually proportional to our degree of sacrifice! The more effort we do, the better will be the reward!

So if you cheated on the diet, you have 2 options for the next day:

1-      You stop dieting, and say:” Anyway I cheated on the diet yesterday so let me continue eating, I want nothing to do with this diet”

2-      You forget what happened, and start your diet strictly the following day, so that you only cheated let’s say in 1000 or 2000 or max 3000 calories. You forget about it and start again from breakfast the next day as if nothing happened!

So you choose answer 1 or 2?

I hope you said 2! You know why?

Let’s say you lost 3 kg, and cheated one night (ate max 3000 kcal above what you usually burn per day), you’ll gain max ½ kg, and this is if you really ate too much, so you’re still winning the battle over the scale, you still lost 2.5 kg so far since you started the diet! So if you start dieting again the next day you cheat, you’ll continue losing weight from the 2.5 kg that you already lost! But if you cheated on that night and stopped the diet because you felt discouraged then you’ll most probably gain back the 3 kg you lost after a week of cheating (or better said, of stopping the diet!)

So come on, move forward! Do not let a mistake or some undesired result (lost less weight than wanted) discourage you and move you away from your goals or be the starting point for quitting and surrendering the diet. Always start again it is the only way you will achieve your goals!

And I am always here to help you start and re-start again!

Cheer up! You can do it!

Samia Khoury Dietitian