Crap! I Cheated on my Diet! What do I DO?!

As a coach, I literally get this question ALL the time. Hell, I've even wondered what to do myself. Long story short? You're human. It happens. It'll happen to you, and it certainly happens to me. The most important thing to do? Forgive yourself, don't dwell in the moment, and move on. Don't make that cheat meal a cheat day... or (gulp) a cheat WEEK. Simply enjoy it for what it was... a treat, and keep moving forward.

Now that you've read that, take a deep breath. Here is something else you need to consider...

Don't use the scale as a measurement tool. There's NO WAY you did enough damage this weekend for you to gain 5lbs worth of fat. You'd have had to eat like 40 slices of pizza last night ON TOP OF your normal calorie intake for that to happen. You didn't, did you? I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible, anyway. :)

Chances are the number you're seeing on the scale is reflecting fluid retention from all the salt... OR you've been eating at such a caloric deficit as part of your nutrition plan that your muscles were starved of glycogen when you decided to indulge... thus increasing your glycogen stores (not a bad thing!) and perhaps altering the number on a scale a bit.

This has definitely happened to me before. When I was doing the Countdown to Competition eating plan with 21 Day Fix Extreme, I was operating on very little carbohydrates. When I was finished with 3 weeks of that, the next day I definitely had a cheat meal (or two). Did I see the scale change a little? Yes. Did I freak out? No. Why? Because the very next day I jumped right back into a maintenance calorie bracket and continued with my healthy eating, and everything evened itself out.

So what's the bottom line? Although you should definitely try your best to stick to the nutrition plan that corresponds with your program and fitness goals, an OCCASIONAL slip won't derail all of your hard work and progress. The important thing is to make sure your slip doesn't turn into a landslide.

Keep up the great work, everyone!
-A