Thursday, February 18, 2016

My #oneperfectweek setback


I recently participated in a food and fitnes challenge called #oneperfectweek. The overall rules of #oneperfectweek are as follows :

-6 days of working out
-1 rest day
-8 hours of sleep a night
-drink plenty of water
-no alcohol 
-no cheat meals

Overall on a day to day basis I find myself following the above guide with adding in a treat here or there if I'm craving one- I would say the 90% good 10% bad rule of thumb. I decided to partake in this challenge for fun just to say I did it if you will. For my challenge I committed to :

-6 days working out
-1day rest
-only drinking tea and water
-no flour or sugar
-2,000 calories a day of 35% fat - 25% protein and 40% carbs

I went into the challenge pretty confident since like I said my normal eating routine isn't far off. From day one I found myself craving sweets more - I took it as the whole theory you want what you can't have. So I went into day 2 saving some of the fruit I eat as carbs for a treat at night so I'd have something to satiate that craving. The rest of the week went as planned and towards Friday I even thought of keeping it going and joining the #iquitsugar challenge I'd stumbled upon! As I started planning out days ahead I realized that we were having company and it wouldn't be fair to serve food with no flour and sugar to fit my needs- also that I didn't want to make my guests feel uncomfortable by not eating the food I served but a "special" meal so I decided to go back to my normal routine of one cheat meal a week and the 90/10 rule. 

Boy am I glad I stopped when I did! I lost maybe 2 pounds the whole week - and when I came off and had my well deserved cheat meal it's like I couldn't get enough sugar and carbs!! I had the worst sugar high - didn't even feel good but my body was craving more! Since I know the more simple carbs you have the more your body craves them I tried to ignore my cravings but found myself for 3 days straight after just wanting sugar and sweets! So much more than normal - and I ended up gaining the 2 pounds I lost back and then another 2 on top of that! 

It became clear to me that importance of giving your body in moderation what it's craving at the moment. If you are craving chocolate and add into your daily calories a piece of chocolate or on a cheat meal splurge then you're going to help maintain your cravings and keep them at bay. It's simply unrealistic and unsustainable to never splurge on a treat or a craving. A lot of people have the experience I did after a crash diet or juicing diet - really any kind of restrictive diet to binge when it's done and just crave all the sweets they avoided so much more than they normally would have if they didn't try the diet. 

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