"What's done is done and may not be undone," says the dicho, and it's true! As much as you might try to be well behaved on your diet, no one is perfect and there are always going to be times when you slip up and make mistakes. So when you're sitting there wallowing in guilt because you ate an entire tub of ice cream to yourself… what do you do about it?
One thing that you should NOT do, is to beat yourself up over it and to then proceed to starve yourself for the following weeks. This is only going to make you want to cheat again and you can't "take it back" so you might as well let yourself enjoy it. Instead you need to keep a level head and following the steps below. This will let you run damage limitation and while you can't turn back time, you may just be able to prevent some of what you ate from making a permanent home on your hips.
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1. Eat fiber: If what you just downed was indeed a tub of ice cream, then you might benefit from chasing it down with some fiber or maybe even some fat or protein. The reason for this is that simple carbs–like ice cream–rapidly release glucose into the bloodstream thus encouraging lipogenesis (the creation of fat cells). If you eat some fiber, which takes a longer time to digest, then this will slow down the speed with which that food gets processed and you'll get a steadier supply of energy. This in turn means less of an insulin spike, which may mean less fat storage. It might seem mad to think that the best thing you can do after binging is to eat more but in fact this is often the case!
2. Exercise: Contracting your muscles briefly 1.5 hours after eating might just be enough to reduce the amount of calories your body absorbs and stores as fat. The reason for this is that it takes about an hour and a half for the glucose in our food to reach our blood stream. If you then engage your muscles, you can then effectively "redirect" that glucose and encourage your body to use it as energy rather than store it as fat. The book The Four Hour Body recommends doing press ups against the wall but just walking will do the trick if you're not up for afternoon calisthenics. Going out to exercise will burn some calories and might help you return to that caloric deficit to help you lose weight! Either way, it is very important to just resist the temptation to veg out.
3. Consider making it a "cheat day:" Most experts recommend having one "cheat day" a week when you can eat anything you want. This keeps morale high and it actually prevents the metabolism from adapting to your reduced calories and subsequently slowing down. The great thing about a cheat day as well is that you can use it to prevent yourself from feeling too guilty. Eaten something you shouldn't? Just rearrange your week a little and make that your cheat day–problem solved!
Remember to share this article with all the people you love so that they can also benefit from this wonderful information. Together we can make this world a happier, healthier world!
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