I cheat on a diet at the drop of a hat—what to do?

OK, so you are enticed by any temptation that flashes before your eyes. Maybe you give in to the urge to eat the minute you feel your mood sinking. These are glitches that can totally kill your diet.

Here's a way to use a cheat—put it to work for you. Does that sound like a contradiction? How can a bad thing like a cheat actually do something good? Well, it can, and here's one way to make it happen. It's called "repurposing".

What many people do after they slip while dieting is to regret having done so. They feel guilty. They feel let down. They feel angry at themselves. They feel trapped, because they can't go back and do it over again—minus the cheat.

So, back to the idea of repurposing. Since you can't change what's already happened, how about if you do the next best thing, which is to alter the effect of what's happened on the present. Let's see how you might take the aftermath of one of your cheating episodes and convert it into a script for future actions. This will turn a "looking back with regret" moment into a proactive moment.

Here's how it works. In the past, after falling off your diet and feeling terrible, maybe even hopeless about it, you probably said to yourself: If only I had _________, things would be better. In the blank might be: If only I had remembered my goal, or If only I had spoken up to that person instead of stuffing down my feelings, or If only I had told my hostess I was on a diet, or If only I had skipped that luncheon with my friends who are all overweight, or If only I had given myself some "time-out" time and not gotten so tired. Anyway, you get the picture.

You are trying to fix your cheat, in a way, by thinking of something you could have done that would have been much better for you.

Well, this is a great thing to do. Now you can tailor this "if only I had" thinking ever so slightly and come up with an alternative future action. This is the way to achieve a positive outcome next time, a better reality for you and dieting.

As a proactive strategy, you can take any "If only I had..." and transform it into a definite and positive plan. For example: I will bring a piece of paper with me next time I go out to dinner listing my goals and remind myself of why I want to achieve them; I will prepare myself with satisfying things to say when I feel like someone is criticizing me; I will forewarn my hostess about the fact that I am dieting so she won't need to feel hurt if I don't eat much; I will skip lunch with my overeating friends until I reach my goal and feel more confident; I will make sure not to get so tired that I can't focus on dieting.

You see how you are tooling up with a plan like this? And it comes directly out of a cheat. In fact, without the cheat, you might not know as well what you need to anticipate and plan for.

This will up your confidence, and equip you to negotiate any dieting "hot spot". It will prepare you to meet the momentary challenge, whatever it is.

It's really true: mistakes are the best teachers of all.

© Maria's Last Diet. Maria's Last Diet is an online weight loss support website for women. At Maria's Last Diet, you'll find the tools to fix the thoughts, feelings, and automatic habits that fight against you when you diet. Because it's never just about the food. Visit www.mariaslastdiet.com for more diet tips and weight loss motivation.

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