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Wellness > Health

Lose the Freshman 15: Compensating for a Slip-Up

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I cannot tell a lie.
 
Yesterday, I slipped up on my diet.
 
cfac14dbIt was one of my close friend’s 21st birthdays, so a bunch of my friends went out to lunch with her to help her celebrate. I had packed my lunch ahead of time earlier that morning, but for some reason, I was incredibly hungry all day. And evidently too weak to resist temptation, because I ended up ordering a side of guacamole and chips against my better judgment.
 
At the time, it seemed like a good idea, though.
 
I figured that I had been working hard all last week, and deserved a nice, little reward for eating so well and exercising so intensely.
 
But boy, was I mistaken.
 
I may have thoroughly enjoyed the guacamole and chips at the time of the lunch, but afterwards, I felt immediately gross.
 
And when I say gross, I mean disgustingly full. And not a happy full. This was a unhealthy, bloated full. It was a full that I haven’t felt the entire time that I’ve been on the Jumpstart Diet, because everything that I have put into my body these past eight weeks has been healthy. Meaning I haven’t been eating greasy, fried and processed food.
 
But that simple side of guacamole and fattening chips made me feel awful, because my body is so used to healthy foods and it didn’t know how to react to something so foreign and fattening. And that awful feeling stuck with me for the rest of the day – so much so that I felt sick to my stomach by the time evening rolled around.
 
And I just had to do something about it.
 
0385778dTo compensate for the extra calories and fattening food that I put into my body earlier in the day, I worked out hard later at night. I ran stadiums on campus for over an hour, which included a two-mile warm-up run.
 
Then, I did my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred video (which I’m up to level 2 on now!).
 
I wasn’t about to let that little food mistake stop me from working out hard and still feeling good about myself. And of course, I monitored my calorie in-take at night so I wasn’t eating as much, because of the huge splurge that I had incurred at lunch.
 
Although the chips and guacamole upset my staomch, eating that side yesterday made me realize that it’s okay to treat yourself a little every now and then.
 
It’s not against the law to splurge while on you’re diet. But you have to make sure you do a few things if you are planning on splurging:

  1. Plan ahead: Don’t splurge in the spur of the moment. You’ll indefinitely regret it later, because you’ll most likely eat too much of a good thing. Make sure that you’re strategic about treating yourself as well, so that you’re treating yourself to something you REALLY want and not just that donut that is sitting in front of you at work.
  2. Moderate yourself: It’s okay to eat one cookie. Or two cookies. What’s not okay, is to eat 10 cookies at one time because you couldn’t stop yourself. Make sure that you’re portioning out your treat, so that it’s really just that – a treat, and not a binge.
  3. Work out more: If you know that you’re going to eat extra calories that day, you’ll have to work out a little bit more to compensate for the food you’re putting in your body. Treating yourself is fine, you just have to make sure that you’re exercising off those extra calories.
  4. Eat less: Eating something like a slice of cake or a side of French fries is going to be calorie-heavy and surely fattening. To compensate for eating that, you have to adjust the rest of the food that you put in your body for that day. Try to eat a little less at each meal so that you’re not overloading your body with calories in one day.

In reality, it’s okay that you treat yourself every so often. Really, it is.
 
No one’s going to die. And you’re not going to gain any weight from eating one slice of cake, one cookie or one scoop of ice cream once a month or so. Just make sure that you stop there, at one. Or two. Because if you eat anymore than that, it might stop being a treat and start being an excessive splurge.
 
But I promise you that it’s not the end of the world if you do decide to treat yourself. Just make sure that you try to adjust the rest of your day to compensate for the extra calories, and most of all, make sure to enjoy it while it lasts.

What’s your favorite thing to splurge on when while you’re dieting? Leave me a comment below, email me at sarakaner@hercampus.com or tweet me here and share with me! I’ll share with you mine too. 

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Sara Kaner
Sara Kaner was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California and first fell in love with journalism as a freshman in high school thanks to her wonderful Intro to Journalism teacher. A family move brought her to Fort Myers, Florida the summer after her freshman year of high school, but she continued to pursue an interest in journalism. She is in her second year at the University of Florida and is pursuing a dual degree in Public Relations and Psychology. She is heavily involved on the UF campus and dedicates most of her time to her various organizations and to her friends. She loves people, magazines, sports and social media, and she hopes to combine all three in her job someday. For now, she aspires to attend Law School and specialize in Media Law. She secretly aspires to be Chelsea Handler, but she's happy being herself for the moment, just as long as she can lose the freshman 15 this semester.