I'll start again on Monday

The bottom end of the bag of crisps, the discarded KitKat wrapper and the leftover curry signals a mid-week feast. I refuse to call it a binge, I refuse to call it a slip up. You only slip up when you quit, and we don't quit.

The day is Thursday and I could say, "oh I'll just start again on Monday". But once Sunday night comes the shame spiral will inevitably hit me and I'll dread Monday. I'll probably be "good" for the first few days then Thursday will come right back around and I'll be at the back end of a Tikka Masala drunk on Popadoms and mango chutney.

The mentality of starting again on Monday can most often than not be attributed (among other things) to this yoyo like behaviour. It restricts me, punishes me and ultimately derails my progress by guilting me into over restricting on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday then becomes too much in the later part of the week and I binge until Sunday shame.

This is how I stop that from happening.

There is no "I'll start again" because you never stop.

Let's look into this.

Don't put yourself in a situation where you're body is screaming for the food it loves.

Put yourself in a reasonable deficit, say 10% under maintenance (Calculator here:https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html) and view the calories as a week. Let's reiterate that as it's really important. Looking at your total calories consumed in the week and not on a day-to-day allows you to eat the food you want to, without binging, without guilt. Just come under the total calories per week.

So this means you can plan to fail. You can plan to go over in an evening if you want to head out for a few drinks or you want to drown in curry. Reduce the amount of calories you consume in the days leading up to it and go for it. You find you become far more mindful of what you're eating, enjoying the foods you love and not seeing yourself as on a diet. It's now just living within your calorie means.

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