Cake or death – A dieter’s worst mistake

When it comes to diets, there’s hundreds, all of which comes with strict dos and don’ts. Now for most people, if they say they’re going on a diet, they mean all in, living on salad and water.

But then something terrible happens. They keep at it for a week and then they’re faced with a slice of cake and they cave. Within seconds they’ve gone from driven to eat health and be better, to rolling in the dirt covered in cake crumbs while the band waggon leaves them behind.

At this point they’ve given up. They think because of this one piece of cake, their diet is ruined so they may as well give it up.

I call this the Cake or Death approach to dieting. This is the number one biggest mistake a dieter can make.

The reason for this is if you’re so strict on yourself with your diet, you are probably going to fail. And when you do, you think it’s ruined and there’s no point in trying again.

When realistically, if you’ve been eating well for two weeks, then one slice of cake isn’t going to suddenly undone all that good work.

This extremely approach to dieting is very hard to stick to and is the wrong approach.

If you want to lose weight, you need to be going for a long term and sustainable approach because this may be much slower weight loss, but you’ll actually be able to maintain the weight loss.

Here’s my alternative to the Cake or Death approach to dieting.

1. Don’t go extreme. Base your diet on true balance and on good healthy nutrition. That means lots of protein, lots of veg, a small amount of carbs, and the occasional treat. Remember you can have that slice of cake, just not every day or even every week. They’re treats and you must treat them that way
2.  Don’t have a set ‘cheat day’. What happens with a cheat day is you’ll cheat just because you can. If you’re going to have a treat, have it because you’ve been wanting it all week and you can’t stop craving it, not just because it’s your cheat day and you can have something ‘bad’.
3. Don’t diet, change your lifestyle instead. No strict diet in the world will help, if you drink wine and beer every night, just like cutting out everything sugary doesn’t help if you’re eating endless amounts of bread and potatoes. You have to change your lifestyle and make it one you can maintain.

And don’t forget about exercise.

If you want to read more about the kind of eating plan and exercise I’d include in this healthy lifestyle, you can check out my blog post about the ‘Get-Fit-Not-Thin Revolution’.

Don’t try be skinny, try be health and a better body will follow on. One slice of cake doesn’t ruin everything, just keep it balanced and you’ll be well on your way to feeling fit and healthy.  

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