Last night during our group session we discussed the on-going cycle of poor eating/decision making which leads to cheating and eventually giving up. It's a cyclical problem:
Trigger/Event that leads to eating > Emotion: Guilt/Anger, etc. > Avoidance > New Trigger
The key is to not give up after cheating or going off your diet. The "avoidance" phase can be the worst for most people. You ignore what you have just done or put off going back onto the program (or diet). Instead you need to acknowledge what you have done, accept it, and move on. By moving on I mean going back onto the diet or healthy eating plan.
One of the best examples our leader gave was regarding breaking down and eating a one pound package of Oreos. According to her (and I did not do the math here) ... a one pound package has a total of around 2400 calories. Bottom line - that won't even add up to a full pound of weight. Yes, it is detrimental to your diet to continue this eating pattern, however, once won't kill you.
What you do need to realize is, yes, you ate something unhealthy, but you can move past this. Don't use the word "bad", there are so many negative connotations to this and it can really mess with your mind and lead to more guilt and more avoidance.
After listening to last night's discussion I've been thinking a lot about cheating. I realized I do the "avoidance" thing A LOT. However, the whole discussion makes me concerned that I might break down and cheat. The whole "it's okay" thing is bad for my state of mind. As long as I am on the mindset that I won't cheat, I don't cheat. Does that make sense? I'm worried that I accept cheating as a possibility that I might do it and then do it again and again.
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