When a cheat day becomes a "cheat life"

There are a lot of people that I know that are disciplined as far as diet and exercise and some of them take it to the point where they aren't really very fun to hang out with because of this. I don't subscribe to this point of view or way of living. If you really enjoy that life and feel as though your body is a temple this is cool and all, but it kind of makes you a boring person to others. That's just my personal opinion and is a big part of the reason why I call myself a normie even though I do in fact, exercise a lot more than most people do.

I drink a lot and really value my social time and often these times come with snacks and beverages that are a little less than ideal as far as health is concerned. I have at times fallen off the wagon in terms of fitness though and one of those times resulted in me ballooning up to a heavier weight than I ever thought I would ever achieve at more than 220 lbs when my "fighting weight" is probably around 170 or so. I was not very pleased with myself when that happened and thankfully I had what it took to turn things around. It was a very long road becoming fat and a longer road coming back from that.

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I do think that diet and exercise is a crucial part of existence but I also think that we have to live a little and this is why I subscribe to cheat days provided that you can keep it at just a day. I think it is very easy to fall into a trap of bad habits if the cheat day becomes multiple cheat days and in extreme cases like my pal Jason who failed at his diet, I think that not having what it takes to turn the cheat around can be a really bad thing.

I ran into this funny cartoon the other day and it made me think of several of my friends that exactly this sort of thing happened to.... including myself.

It really is amazing how quickly a person can gain weight or at least start to lose muscle definition and diet focus. For me, I start to notice it in my face after just a short amount of time. It wasn't that long ago that a short vacation that involved copious amounts of beer kind of turned into me bringing those habits home with me and thankfully, I do have the dedication to turn this around.

For some people though, they don't turn it around and it is very easy to just give up and become fat and lethargic. So what can we do to prevent this? Well, I think it is the same things that we use to treat almost anything else. I fell into a trap of instead of focusing on getting some walks or runs or trips to the gym in that I would crack open beers immediately after work or even worse, go straight from work to the pubs with friends. At least in my world, this is a great way to ensure that i am not going to exercise. While I do enjoy the occasional "drunk run" for the most part I am not going to end up doing these things.

I believe that I am the type of person with the type of lifestyle that if I take more than a couple of days off from a somewhat regimented lifestyle that I will start to gain weight almost immediately. Most people my age are the same way as well.

How I nipped it in the bud wasn't that difficult: I just started meeting my friends at the pub later rather than going right away. You can accomplish a lot as far as exercise is concerned in a mere hour and even though going to the pub is certainly a lot easier and more fun than going home and lacing up my shoes, I have found that the hardest part about this discipline was simply making the choice to do it at all in the first place. Once I had my shoes on and was out the door, the exercise was simple. I've always been this way and I think this is the case for most people also. An object in motion tends to stay in motion and this is how I operate.

After making the conscious decision to do something healthy like go for a hour walk / jog I was able to meet my friends at the pub and the ones that I like the best were still there anyway. Another added bonus about this attitude is that I ended up not wanting to drink as much once I was there because I was tired and also had a mindset of not wanting to offset the exercise I had just done by excessive calorie intake.

So if you find yourself in a "cheat spiral" I think the best thing to do would be to just make one small change like I did. Just put your athletic shoes on and go out the door, the rest will fall into place. That is the hardest part about any fitness plan - simply getting started.

Cheating is fine but you have to make certain that it doesn't become the norm. Once exercise becomes the cheat, rather than the norm, you are likely headed to disaster. You can turn it around though. Why not start today?