Last Updated on July 23, 2017
First, it’s ok to slip up once a while. Nobody’s perfect.
It does not mean we are useless or is a failure. Don’t hate yourself.
Before I started eating sensibly, I used to feel guilty about my sweet tooth and food addiction, not realising it is attributed to the way the food I take react in my body. Still, there will be times when we will be off our healthy eating plans. Just like last Thursday, my now ex-boss treat an entire team to a farewell lunch (thank goodness she is not leaving the company, but she is now going to manage a much bigger team- and make more positive difference in the lives of others). We ordered varieties of food and shared- this way, everyone gets to try out different types of dishes. Of course I can’t be that selfish to demand that everyone eat salad or some kind of healthy, boiled food in an expensive restaurant? And I wouldn’t because I am sure looking forward to pasta and pizza since I’ve not eaten them for a long time.
So we shared starters, pizzas, sweet curry mee, pasta, salad and finish it off with delicious desserts. Overall, the food’s excellent. After lunch, I chose the stairs over escalators on my way back to office. Then ate my grapefruit/fruits from my Tupperware and felt better- citrus really helps to make the carbo digestion better. Normally I notice that once I start taking processed rich carbo food, I would crave carbo for my next meal. And I did. I could not resist having Thai noddles for my dinner.
Since August, I have adopted a more moderate approach and allow myself little indulgences here and there. But I always either eat lots of fruits and vege right before or after the little indulgence. Then I also cut down my food portions later or increase my exercise. Allowing yourself to indulge once a while will prevent yourself from gorging food and throwing caution to the wind- in other words, it prevents major slip ups. Eat, enjoy but don’t gorge on food. This allow me to appreciate the food and value my boss’s kindness and generosity instead of feeling guilty after eating.
And I planned my exercise activity around my increased food intake:
- Thursday night it was Merdeka eve – could not make it to the gym
- Friday, woke up with a slight headache- normally happens when I take too much carbs the day before. Morning, went to the gym and did 1 hr cardio– burned about 500 calories. Did not do weights coz did not want to tire out my muscles.
- At night, did a yoga based exercise that my colleague downloaded for me- I just intend to watch the tape but as I loved the exercises, I ended up following a one hour tape.
- Today (Saturday), did about 1/2 hour cardio, followed by 1 hr yoga based exercise, then 15 min intensive jogging- to warm up the musles before weights. Did some weights for stomach and legs. Then 10 min cycling and end with streching to cool down.
- Tomorrow, planned to do longer lower intensity cardio (probably about 1.5 hrs) and weights for arms and stomach. Then short light cardio, followed by stretching.
When I exercise, I’ve learned to tune it to my body. I notice that this gives the best results. It’s important not to overtrain and overtax our muscles. This week, I am exploring on sustained exercising through lowering intensity.
