Ep 26. Feeling despair after cheat days?

Cheat days vs bingeing

The line is blurry however it likely feels bad coming out of either.

Weekends

Weekends mark the time for exciting food, drinks, eating out. It may start w/ a drink and eating out on Friday and then brunch the next day and then Monday jumps out out of the blue. Whether or not cheat meals/days go into a full-out binge, if you feel really bad at the end of a weekend, it’s a good enough sign that whatever is happening is not fully serving you.

The morning after…

Water weight, feeling full, bloated, the whole gamut of physical sensations may be surfacing.

We’ve all been there. If you’re feeling especially awful, below are some tips to stop the cycle.

Tip 1: Get ahead of the curve

Are you excited about your weekday meals or are they all the same and bland-tasting? You may be building excitement for all the foods you can eat on the weekends. It’s a lot of pent-up excitement.

Idea: Sprinkle in more excitement during the week i.e. try an exciting recipe or takeout in the middle of the week.

Analogy: say you saved up all your exercise for the weekend. On weekdays you may be itching to move. On weekends you might overdo it and injure yourself.

Tip 2: Evaluate your cheat/binge foods

Zoom in on the experience of eating those foods. Notice how your body feels without judgment during the course of eating that food. Do you feel the sweats or that it becomes overpoweringly sweet/salty?

Can you notice the moment of diminishing returns? After repeatedly noticing those moments, can you eventually take action?

Tip 3: Try to not beat yourself up for it too much

You don’t have to start fresh, you don’t have to punish yourself with oatmeal and salads everyday for the next week (if you don’t like those foods). Continue to find joy and excitements in the foods that you’re eating. Otherwise, you’ll just continue to the cycle of pent-up excitement on the weekends.

Get support

If you’re feeling stuck and find yourself having cheat meals every weekend when it’s no longer serving you, think about reaching out for support. I help clients on these exact issues on a daily basis.

When you do it alone, it prolongs the pain. Getting support fastracks the process! Instead of waking up a year later and still having this issue, imagine feeling more at peace 3 months from now and navigating the holidays with ease!