You have to love the Easter come down.
We’ve all enjoyed some chocolate this weekend, or at least, I hope you have.
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of chocolate here and there – it’s not going to affect anything in the long term, and actually, it’s hard to gain actual fat over a day or two because our bodies have some wonderful ways of dealing with the extra calories for a short while. You’ll probably see some extra weight on the scales, but only a very small amount of it will be fat, and it will go again almost as soon as you get back to normal.
This said, it can be hard to pick yourself back up after a few days of allowing the low-nutrition, high pleasure foods into your diet more regularly than you usually would.
So, I’m going to share with you my simple four step formula for drawing a line under the weekend and getting yourself back on track.
This works a treat if you’ve only been off-course for a few days. It should feel like a gentle course realignment, it’s not an opportunity for a massive overhaul.
FIRST
Tune in to your body.
How is your digestion? How is your energy? Have you been sleeping well? Are you noticing cravings you didn’t have before?
Notice all these things without judgement. We’re just trying to draw our attention to what is different.
THEN
Look at what you are doing and how that differs compared to before you took time off your plan.
Maybe:
– you’re grazing rather than eating proper meals
– your protein and/or veg intake has gone out the window
– you’ve forgotten to drink water
– you’ve given up on meal planning
– you’ve run out of food to make proper meals
– you’re sitting up late in the evening
– your activity levels have plummeted
THEN
The next step should be simple, because what you need to do is glaringly obvious.
Remember this should not feel like a life overhaul, you should be getting back into habits which were already pretty well ingrained.
Go to the shops if you need to, write a menu plan, fill up a jug of water to remind yourself to drink it – whatever you need to do.
FINALLY
Ride it out for 24 hours. Stick with what you’re doing like a robot – don’t allow thoughts to enter your mind!
In my experience, you’ll be straight back in your usual routine after this.
Of course, this is a very simple plan. And it might feel like something more extreme would be better, but, if what you were doing before you had a few days off seemed to be working for you, then it really is a simple case of picking up the reins and getting back to it.
There’s no need for any guilt, judgement or ‘payback’. Just get back to what was working.