The Secret to Guilt-Free Eating
And why it’s not your diet plan or having a cheat day
This is not going to be a recommendation for any particular diet regime or some “guilt-free” food that is advertised. Not at all. None of those things are sustainable in the long run. There are, like a million diet plans out there. You have your keto diets, intermittent fasting, plant-based diets, meat-only diets, low-fat diets, vegan diets, and so on. There are hundreds of thousands of web pages and tools on how to count your calories and burn fats.
We are spoiled for choices right now if you’re looking to eat healthy and watch your weight or go on a fitness journey. You can hop onto any of those trains. What all of these fail to take into account is our natural tendency to fall off these wagons every few weeks or months or even days.
Hats off to the perseverance of those who make it their lifestyle and always stick to their diet charts. That takes more superhuman strength than lifting the heaviest set of dumbbells at the gym.
To those who falter
Didn’t we all try to get in shape and get that summer body we had always dreamt of? Especially during the last year or so, while we were all locked down because of the raging pandemic, if you haven’t noticed. Does it feel like we are stuck in a constant loop of healthy diets followed by binge eating repeatedly?
This is the struggle that a majority of us face and can’t seem to catch a break. One might tell us to pick a diet plan and stick to it using our willpower. As many of us are aware, it’s easier said than done.
What happens in most cases is at first the diet plan seems to go all hunky-dory, and then one dreadful day it is derailed. Now a few of us might get back and clean up our act. But for most, it is our daily inner pep talk to start again tomorrow.
Tomorrow is such a hopeful and an open-ended word. There’s always a new tomorrow right around the corner.
The nights for those who falter are filled with guilt about not eating healthy and the promise of a new dawn in our fitness journey the next morning.
The keys to guilt-free eating
How does one fight the guilt we put ourselves into? The answers are simple. It’s a multi-step process.
- The first and the most important one is knowing how your taste buds act up and what your actual diet is. Do not go around starving yourself, thinking you can do this long-term.
- The second one is understanding how much your body needs to work out to attain the shape you want it to be in. It doesn’t have to be an intense gym or a yoga session. Just make sure to do whatever form of workout you enjoy.
- The next one is to stop lying to ourselves and being realistic about what we can and cannot resist when it comes to food.
- Accepting the fact that being in shape is not a week or a month-long endeavor. It’s a journey that we are on every day of our lives.
If only we did these four things, we won’t need to be constantly guilt-ridden after eating something we love. Understand that we don’t have to make it our life’s purpose to have that “dream physique” (unless we’re getting paid for it). It’s all about keeping healthy and enjoying the little pleasures in life. And what greater pleasure is there than eating something that your heart truly desires.
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