Admit it, We All Do it, Come on we all Cheat!

Today I was on my way home from doing two hours of water aerobics and I had been struggling with a migraine all morning, so I knew that I needed caffeine as quickly as possible. Not wanting any additional sugar or calories I chose to stop at McDonald's and get a Diet Coke and nothing else, hoping the caffeine would kick start my medicine and soon rid me of my horrible migraine.

As I am sitting in the drive thru the thought crosses my mind, "I could grab a McDouble to tide me over until lunch, and then just work really hard at the gym tonight" Admit it we have all been there drooling over something we know in every fiber of our being we SHOULD NOT have. Then at that moment something told me to look at the menu and in the middle it showed a picture of a McDouble meal with large fries and a medium coke and underneath it said whole meal 770 calories. I felt like a cartoon character at that moment and my eyes bugged out 770 calories, that is 2/3 of  my daily calorie intake on something I guarantee would only fill me up for one hour if that, and worse I would feel guilty for hours afterwards. Then under that picture it said sandwich alone 390 calories that did  not help the situation, so as I sat there I was ready to kick myself in my own butt for even thinking of cheating. So instead I went home and made a good food choice and grabbed my diet coke and some Special K Cracker Crisps a much healthier snack choice, that I guarantee I will not feel guilty about later. Cheating to me has been the hardest part of changing my lifestyle into a new healthier way, it is not over indulging or even indulging at all. It is the hardest part because it is all in your head, when you crave those bad food choices, or feel like cheating you have to try and talk yourself off that ledge and pray you don't make those bad choices.

Some tips and tricks that I found that have worked for me are below:

• When going to workout I make sure I bring a full bottle of water and then a healthy snack to have as soon as I get done. I tend to be very hungry after working out, and I pass so many fast food restraunts on my way home that I always, always pack a healthy snack to have on the way home.


• Since I work from home, I have removed all snacks from my office at all, I may sit at my desk with a meal or snack but I make sure I only take in exactly what I can have and no more or no less. So that uneaten food or snacks are not sitting on my desk staring at me saying "Eat Me" lol


• Keep your home a food friendly place to come home too, what I mean is if those bad food options are not in your home in the first place you are less likely to snack on them. I realize this is hard when you have spouses or kids, so maybe putting those items in a cabinet that you do not use often so you are not constantly facing them.


• Keep ONLY those friends and family members around you that understand truly what you are going through and can support you along the way.


• Picture yourself! this is a hard one but one I am going to do today is have someone take a photo of yourself and put this on your computer as desktop or your phone as screen saver and use this as your motivation to keep going and to not CHEAT.


• Keep track of your food so that YOU are being accountable to YOU. Over the last few months I have tried very hard to look at my body as my best friend that I have abused for years and that I want to make better. So I try very hard to think about EVERY food choice that goes into my body, is it going to help me. is it low calorie, is it low carb, does it contain high protein. Every morsel of food that goes into my mouth I have to be able to justify that it is a good choice for my body.

Leave a comment and let me know what items do you find yourself cheating on? Or do you have tips that you use that prevent yourself from cheating?