After Dirty Day: What to do and how to recover?

You strictly follow a diet, but deviate for a moment and suddenly it turns out that you have consumed more calories than in the last 3 days combined.

A vicious circle begins, in which overeating and compensation are repeated, as well as a sense of guilt that you are ruining the efforts made so far.

What actions are needed after a dirty meal to compensate?

Increase training?

Reduce food?

Do a detox to cleanse and restart your body?

Unfortunately, all three strategies teach us the wrong habits.

Instead, my recommendation is to go back to your strict diet and fitness program without changing anything.

Why? Because I have tried all the mentioned alternatives and I have realized how badly they affect when we start "punishing" ourselves for every transgression.

More importantly:

# 1: There is no way to compensate for a bad diet

A dirty day can range from 2000 to 4000+ calories above the usual daily intake.

At the same time 1 hour of fitness training burns 300-500 calories.

Even if we exercise for 5 consecutive hours, we will not be able to compensate for the calories we eat.

With this approach, we learn every time we sin with unhealthy food, to reduce healthy. Does it sound logical and correct to you?

In this way we store more fat because of the intake of more calories, but at the same time we lose muscle mass due to the reduction of quality food and improper physical activity.

Interesting fact: It is typical to have water retention after a dirty meal. It most often manifests itself in an increase in basic measures (waist, hips) and weight, as well as in puffiness. This can further demotivate the trainee to follow his diet.

# 2: Punishing yourself the next day makes things worse

This way of thinking, which includes self-punishment and guilt, is actually the reason why the "dirty day" is even more desirable and uncontrollable.

I had a bad habit of being on a diet for six days, depriving myself of favorite foods to ruin everything I worked for on the seventh.

This one day of zero self-control always made me feel "defeated" and extremely guilty that I put effort and means, but I do things wrong and do not progress.

The next day I usually reduced my carbs and made up for it with an extra cardio workout.

Unfortunately, additional training was never enough, and the constant reduction of carbohydrates was the reason I felt without tone and energy in the next few days, as well as a very probable reason for the lack of progress.

Stop feeding this mentality - all or nothing is not always the right solution.

# 3: Don't take it personally

You should not feel bad because you need a piece of chocolate or ice cream, or because you still do not have a pronounced abdominal pressure.

The trick is to find a balanced approach between healthy eating that works for your overall health by achieving your fitness goals.

It's important not to make a big problem out of every dirty meal, because that's not really a problem. You have the right to consume any food, just as you have the right to buy your favorite shoes that you like.

If your goal is to be healthy and look good, it will be in your best interest to eat foods that have a high nutritional value and make it the largest part of your diet.

In this case, you need to nourish your body to feel good and have the energy to work effectively for your purpose

Once you have a clear basic plan that works, it is no problem to occasionally consume foods outside your diet.

Similarly, if you save money and have BGN 1,500 in the bank, you can easily go out and buy a new pair of shoes for BGN 1,100 and still have money left, but will you do it?

Most likely the answer is "No", because if you save money, you can spend it more wisely on food, bills, rest, rent, individual diet by Stammer Minho and shoes of 100 leva (if you really need them)

Conclusion

The truth is that you can consume any food or drink, but if you want to achieve results, you have to make decisions that push you forward for most of your daily life.

Having a clear idea of   what exactly you need to consume, as well as how a violation of the regime is affected, you will be able to make much better decisions based on where you are now and the goals you want to achieve over time. .

Do you want to stick to your diet and feel satisfied, moving faster towards your goals? Or do you want to spend your calories on something less appropriate, like a piece of cake?

In any case, you will make the right decision with more information.

One piece of cake may be able to reduce the mental pressure of the diet and be enough to reduce the need for unhealthy foods during the week. That's why you need to be aware and ask yourself: Do I really want to spend ____ on this?

If the answer is yes, then enjoy your favorite food without guilt. In this way you will feel much more satisfied and in control of the situation, which will help you make better decisions in the future.

Achieving your goals is a long-term investment of time, effort and resources.

Falling into a constant cycle of overeating and compensation will only slow things down and make the whole journey necessary to get to the goal much more unpleasant (even impossible) - as if trying to turn a marathon into a sprint.

Don't rush too much and don't worry about pampering yourself from time to time with your favorite food (or shoes)..