Pep Talk
Let's face it -- you will never NOT have junk food again. No matter how consistent you are, there will always be special occasions, holidays, birthdays, or vacations to lure you away from your healthy eating plan. And you know what? That is perfectly normal.Any diet that expects you to be "perfect" 100% of the time is flawed. Does this sound familiar? Your diet is so strict that you feel very deprived. Despite your desire to stick to it, you cheat. And you feel horrible. So you keep cheating. You eat as much junk as you can because you will start back on track tomorrow. And before you know it, you have eaten almost everything in the house, feel like crap, and are disappointed in yourself.
This vicious cycle will continue UNLESS you PLAN for treating yourself. Your diet can be "perfect" if it strategically includes cheats from time to time.
Many of you have already heard me preach about the 80/20 rule and my specific way of using it ("Sunday Funday"). But this principle can work for you. You basically plan to eat healthy throughout the week (80% of the time) and reserve the other 20% for occasional treats. If you strategically plan your treats for specific days (such as a work dinner, Friday family pizza night, or Sunday dinner at Grandma's), you can both make progress towards your health goals AND feel like a normal human being who can eat decadent foods from time to time.
The way you use this technique really depends on your lifestyle. If you find you have a couple meals a week that are nutritional landmines, use your treat meals for those and get right back on track with your next meal. I find that saving my treats for the weekend works best for my lifestyle. I eat super healthy until Saturday around noon and then I eat what I want Saturday night and all day Sunday. The golden rule is that I can never eat to the point of making myself sick. I just eat normal portions of food I am craving -- like mac and cheese or pizza.
Just like with your workouts, everything comes down to planning. If you plan ahead, you can make fitness and nutrition a regular part of your daily life.
Challenge Workout
Complete 10 reps of everything, then 9 reps, then 8...all the way down to 1 rep. Take as many breaks throughout.- Triceps Pushups (on your knees or feet)
- Lunges (left leg)
- Lunges (right leg)
