You Had a Diet Slip-Up…Now What?
A slip-up on your weight loss journey is common and can happen to everyone. It’s almost impossible not to have an off day or be tempted by something you shouldn’t be.
But don’t despair; we all make mistakes, especially following a vacation or holiday celebration.
Here, we run through some of the common causes of slip-ups and how you can work through them and ensure a slip-up doesn’t lead to a full-scale dieting disaster!
Common Causes
There’s often a trigger for a slip-up, so in order to get back on track with your weight loss journey, it’s a good idea to pinpoint why you went wrong and try to get to the root of the problem to solve it.
Vacations & Celebrations
You had it in your mind that you might be able to eat healthily and still exercise during your break in the sun or during the holidays, but then the lure of relaxing and all that delicious food became too much, and you gave in.
Life Change
Starting a new job or moving house can lead to dieting mistakes because of a changed routine and added stress and anxiety.
Boredom
Getting bored with your plan is probably the most common reason for slipping up with your weight loss journey. It starts with a skipped gym class and a few bad eating choices, and before you know it, you can have a serious slip-up on your hands.
Lack of Success
Seeing results is one of the key motivators while you’re losing weight, so if the scale isn’t moving despite your hard work, then it can make you less focused and, therefore, more susceptible to slip-ups.
Emotional Upset
Slip-ups with your eating plan can also occur due to an emotional upset in your life, such as a breakup, bad news, or maybe as a result of underlying feelings of loneliness or depression, as seeking comfort in food often means making bad choices and opting for foods higher in fat, salt, and sugar.
How to Recover After a Slip-Up
Now you’ve pinpointed what might be the cause of your slip-up, here are some ways to ensure that you can recover from them and get back on track to weight loss before you know it!
Re-establish Your Routine
If you slipped up on vacation or during the holidays, then returning to your daily routine should be a big help in getting back on track.
Just remember the advice above; don’t put off restarting until next week or next month, do it right now! Maybe you slacked off a little over the holidays or slipped up on vacation, but that’s in the past.
However, you also shouldn’t overcompensate by throwing yourself into a three-day fast or by aiming to go to the gym twice as much as normal; setting yourself more difficult targets is likely to lead to a slip-up rebound.
If you slipped up due to a change in your life or routine, such as starting a new job, then it will be a case of getting organized and using your time better.
If your working hours have changed, then you will have to adapt by fitting in a workout after work instead of before, or maybe you could even use your commute as an exercise opportunity if it’s possible to walk or cycle the journey.
Opt for simple healthy meals during the week, or prepare meals in advance for freezing to help you to eat healthy if you have less time for cooking in the evenings.
And lastly, getting your lunch and snacks ready in advance and packed into Ziploc bags will help you to avoid the vending machine at work
Get to the Root of the Problem
Slip-ups can often occur as a result of using food as a way of coping with problems; certain people, situations, or emotions can be triggers that threaten your best intentions to eat well.
It could be a critical friend, a stressful job, or just simple boredom, but we all know that there are times when we eat even though we’re not really hungry or make bad food choices when we’re being driven by our emotions.
You need to identify these triggers, and keeping a food diary can really help you keep track of when slip-ups are more likely to occur.
While you’re on your weight loss journey, it is important to try and develop a healthy relationship with food, and keeping an account of why you eat when you do can really help you to address your eating behaviors.
When you can identify your trigger, you need to address the cause, if possible, as it’s at the heart of the bigger issue.
On a more serious note, if your weight problems started while you were growing up, psychological issues were and probably still are important factors, so it could be worth talking to a professional to try and overcome these issues.
It’s also important to your mood and state of being that you’re physically healthy, so making sure you get lots of sleep is crucial, as is getting essential nutrients and vitamins to ensure your body is working to its optimum level.
If you’re not feeling your best on your weight loss journey, then you can find more tips about how to improve your overall health and well-being here.
Re-evaluate Your Plan
Boredom and demotivation are the two biggest enemies of your weight loss journey. The key to avoiding boredom is to make sure that you keep things interesting.
Depending on what motivates and interests you, this could mean setting mini-challenges for yourself each week, trying new healthy recipes, non-food rewards, or trying out new sports or exercise classes.
You should constantly be evaluating your motivation levels and asking yourself if what you’re about to do is still enjoyable to you, and if you find that you’re not really as into it as before, then mix things up!
Mixing things up also helps if you’re experiencing a weight loss plateau, which could be why you’re not seeing results.
In order to boost your weight loss, we recommend Phen Caps, to give you added appetite suppression and energy-boosting effects.
Or, it may just be that you’re losing inches, and the scale is lying to you by failing to reflect the positive changes you’re making to your body by building muscle and losing fat, which may show when you try on old clothes or measure the inches you’ve lost.
So, as well as re-evaluating your plan, you should also re-evaluate how you measure success to make sure you recognize how well you’re doing to remain motivated and avoid slipping up again in the future.
Have you had a slip-up or two while on your diet? How did you get back on track? Let us know by commenting below!!
