Slipping Off the Dieting Wagon : The Domino Effect
I think just by reading the title of this, you know exactly what I’m going to talk about. And it’s happened to all of us at least a couple times in our life, unless you are one of the lucky few (very few I might add), who have never ventured to go on a diet. I think my mother may actually be one of those lucky few who never worried about her weight!
The domino effect of falling off the diet wagon is when you are actually either dieting or just watching what you eat, when a little slip up like a huge buffet loaded with potatoes, sweets, fatty meats and other no-no’s leads to a downfall for a few days, where your body can’t seem to get enough of those nasty but tasty naughty foods like pizza, mexican food, pies, cakes, cookies, and the list goes on and on! This is actually quite a common phenomena, and there are psychological and physiological reasons for this rebelling of the mind and body.
Experts have been known to say that this is due to the mentality of dieting. Dieting people often set out on a certain diet, or just a period of watching what they eat with a lot of excitement and anticipation for their new and improved body, self control and feeling better. This is how we all start out on a diet, right? As if it is sort of a new beginning to our lives.
But then after our first slip up, which often occurs fairly soon into a diet, that enthusiasm takes a dive, and we start to think of each slip up as our “last indulgence”, and that we can just start over again the next day, and then, for sure we will be good! This mentality is not uncommon, and it is actually what often leads to diet addiction, weight loss pills experimentation and yo yo dieting, which can do more harm than good not only on our bodies, but on our spirit as well.
Dieting like this not only damages our body by leading it on a wild roller coaster of healthful eating and bowel clogging, heart unhealthy eating, but it also is damaging to our self esteem and our inherent enjoyment in life. It leads to cycles of guilt and even shame and hiding things, and this can even lead to eating disorders like bulimia or binge eating and then starving.
There is a middle ground, but I think we must first come to a place of self acceptance, and love ourselves enough to indulge once in a while, but know when to stop the indulgence so we can eat healthfully the majority of the time and keep a regular exercise program to help offset those little indulgences. That’s all we can ask for, right?
