Rachel and I just finished a busy week. We had 36 attendees from all over the world in town for our last ever Results Fitness Mentorship. Very cool week and a good group of people for our last event of this kind.
But as I’m sure all of you know, its weeks like this that create havoc on your diet. We’re pretty good but we tend to fall into what we call “lazy cheats“. A lazy cheat is something that you eat that is not consistent with your diet plan, but isn’t quite a “cheat” meal. In other words, it’s not like you had a big piece of chocolate cake at a party, it’s more like missing a meal, and then eating a sandwich because that’s all that was available, as opposed to planning your two meals that were just protein and vegetables.
The key to avoiding this (and let’s face it, we all have crazy, busy times in our lives) is to focus on strategy. Instead of trying to figure out where to eat NOW, figure out in advance what your week or weekend is going to look like and what strategies you can put into place in advance, to help keep your health and fitness a priority.
On a similar note – this is the first ever blog post I wrote, and thought it fit in well with this topic:
We have a saying in our gym as regards dieting that we call “degrees of slippage”.
People tend to move away from their diet plan in small degrees.
They start to slip in little degrees and never notice it.
For example the original lunch calls for salmon and brown rice.
Client thinks turkey and rice is okay (which it is). So this becomes the new norm – the new reference point.
Now if that’s okay – then chicken and a sweet potato is also okay (true, especially when compared to the new reference point).
Then a lean piece of red meat and a small baked potato is okay (still only another small degree of difference right?Then lean ground beef, and a couple of small red potatoes or a wholewheat pita would be fine (guess so).
And if a pita is fine, a small roll must be fine, and the ground beef put into a patty will be fine.
So a hamburger is now the diet lunch of choice. And if a hamburger is fine, a Philly cheesesteak on a hoagie roll is fine etc etc.
Now, none of those changes were all that significant, particularly when the change becomes the new “reference point”. But added up we can see that our recommended lunch of salmon and brown rice has become a Philly cheesesteak !! And the client thinks that they are still ON, as none of these changes (at each stage, from each new point of “the diet”) were all that big!
Remember – little degrees of change ended up being complete 90 degree turns (and in this case, that’s a bad thing….). Make sure you aren’t making these mistakes.
–
Alwyn Cosgrove
Here's what his wife had to add:
THE LAZY CHEAT
Your week is snowballing from one commitment to the next, no time to stop and get refocused, at some point you make the decision to either take a moment for yourself and plan ahead with your meals making sure your kitchen is stocked and food is cooked ahead of time…or you never get around to it…and get “lazy” figuring you’ll get back on track tomorrow or next week…
It usually starts after a long day of working, or running around fulfilling commitments, giving your energy all day long. You get home just in time for dinner…you’re hungry, your family is hungry, you haven’t taken a moment to think through what you’ll eat tonight, you open the fridge and maybe there are some chicken breasts you could grill up but that isn’t really hitting the spot and you’re tired and really don’t feel like cooking so you decide…forget it, let’s order pizza or let’s go out…
The Lazy Cheat – The Lazy cheat is a cheat that you did not plan to have ahead of time, it isn’t because you are really looking forward to a splurge of something you have been craving or as part of an experience that you don’t want to miss out of. It is not a part of the plan to get you closer to your goals. But (yes, Behold the Underlying Truth) occasionally, it happens…unfortunately a Lazy Cheat is usually not worth it and you end up using up one of your splurges and not enjoying it. It might simply be a noncompliant meal like a sandwich when you were supposed to have protein and veggies, which is still not a part of your plan. You may justify that it is still a healthy choice to rationalize your lazy cheat. And unfortunately once you give in and have a lazy cheat it tends to perpetuate a whole week of lazy cheats.
Have you ever looked back at your week and realized you used all of your splurges for the week and didn’t really enjoy any of them? They were lazy cheats, convenient at that moment but overall not really worth it.
The secret to overcome lazy cheats – have strategies in place. As Valerie Waters, celebrity trainer and creator of the ValSlide has said, “Strategy trumps will power.” When you have had a long day, are hungry and out of energy your will power is not going to be strong so you must have a strategy. Next time you find yourself having that conversation in your head leading to a lazy cheat…you know the one…”I don’t feel like cooking tonight, I have had a long day, I’ll just order pizza tonight since I should eat something…” turn to the strategy you have planned out ahead of time. Here are a few ideas for the next time you find yourself heading for a lazy cheat.
• Have menus in your car of places you know you can get a healthy meal that are your go-to restaurants. I have a whole stack of menus in my car of places where I can get grilled fish and cabbage salad, or chicken and vegetables, or a healthy salad. If I’m on my way home from a busy day with no plan for dinner I’ll call and place an order to go and pick it up on my way home.
• Have easy meals that you fall back on at these times. One of my easy meals is chicken breast with a can of Lentil Soup – I grill up the chicken breast, heat up the can of soup and pour the soup over the chicken breast- done.
• It’s ok to have a shake for dinner. I have been known to make shakes as I’m leaving the gym for Alwyn and I for our dinner. Dinner doesn’t have to be a big sit down, huge meal. Blend up a scoop of protein, some fruit or peanut butter and call it dinner.
Plan out your week ahead of time including your splurges. Your week should include 10% to relax and enjoy yourself just don’t waste it on a lazy cheat.
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