This weekend I had a girls' night out at a local interior Mexican restaurant, where I feasted on Pescado Yucateco, a blue margarita, and chips with queso. Next was a friend's surprise birthday. Enter gourmet cheeses & crackers (my weakness!), lots of beer and tres leches birthday cake, and I was left a stuffed and sick lil' lady come Sunday morning. How did I repair this mess? By eating some more and skipping the gym. And when Monday rolled around... well, hey, may as well keep "splurging."
Today it's Tuesday, and I can barely breathe. I haven't even weighed myself since Sunday. I'm still feeling sick, and it's progressively gotten worse day after day. Yet I continue to eat workplace snacks (we've already had cinnamon rolls and Tiff's Treats cookies to feat on, today) and can pretty much guarantee that I'm not going to the gym tonight, either.
In my head, however, a different situation is going on. Thoughts of guilt. Disgust. Anger. I don't understand why I have these uncontrollable binge cycles lately. Every few weeks I have been feeling the need to eat everything in sight for a couple of days in a row. And when I'm finally so nauseous and bloated and can no longer squeeze into my new "skinny" clothes, I snap out of it and spend the next two weeks hating myself as I trying to recover.
I stumbled upon this really great article that has some extremely helpful advice about how to get back into control when you have those random (and sometimes PAINFUL!) diet slips. The full article can be viewed here, but a couple of the pointers that I found to be especially notable are below!
- Give thanks for your failure. Turn the negative into a positive by using your mistakes as a learning experience.
- Watch the horrible outcome of your slip. Record your emotional, physical and spiritual feelings regarding the effects of your binge for at least 3-4 days after your slip-up. Acknowledging your disappointment will help keep you from taking things so far the next time you want to treat yourself.
- Dwell on what you really, really, really want. I really, really, really want to be slim, trim, active & healthy... a positive role model for my friends, family, co-workers, etc. I don't really, really, really want a second helping of that chocolate ganache cake.
Do you have any pointers to share for preventing and/or recovering from a diet mishap? Leave a comment!
