Late night binge

Its half way through the year. Some of you have made the commitment to compete in a bodybuilding contest. Some of you are dieting to get into better shape for summer, special occasion or just self satisfaction. So far you're doing great you haven't been tempted to sneak in any treats during the day, but sometimes, at night you have the temptation to sneak in a Tim Tam or bowl of ice cream.

During the day you're completely focused on your day ie planning your meals, work, workout and
making sure you take in take in good quality nutrients. Your diet and your body is on track, and you
don't even have the slightest desire to cheat. Then, something happens. Night falls. You have time to
sit in front of the telly and you see ads for the delicious snack foods pop up on the screen.
You suddenly start to think 'Mmm think I could be hungry'. But are you really?

During The Night
Nobody's perfect and even I've succumb to a few choccy bikkies or ice cream on a few nights. We're only human and we're all motivated first and foremost by desire and taste. Sure, there's no harm in treating yourself occasionally but if you're truely serious about achieving great shape, especially for contest, then you have to think twice about reaching for that snack. You've got to be able to stand and confront your desires before it starts to control you.

During the night, we have taken care of the majority of the days "busy work", so we are sometimes left with a time of empty relaxation, where we don't have much responsibility. When this happens, we often seek comfort in the fulfillment of the taste sensation, since we are able to relax and enjoy it fully. Unfortunately, when we are trying to keep in shape, the constant discipline sometimes kills the term "moderation", in our minds, and we flock from food to food. You only start with one biscuit, which soon becomes 2. Then before you know it you've also devoured half a litre of ice cream. And suddenly you've blown your good eating for that day.

The next day, you feel guilty about your binge so you do more cardio and cut back further on your calories on the following days to make up for the extra calories you consumed days earlier.

Understanding the binge. So how could you have prevented the above binging scenario?
First, you have to realise that the thought has to enter your mind subconsciously, and get "registered". After the thought is registered, the mind decides whether or not to take this thought, and convert it to proper action by means of the body.

Now here's where you can stop the thought in its tracks
You have complete and total control of one thing and one thing only: Your own MIND.
When this thought enters your subconscious mind, you have the power to NEVER turn the thought into an action.This being said, we all know this to not be the case the majority of the time.

Most people don't even realise the subconscious entering of such a thought into their minds,
and proceed straight to the action step, devouring everything in sight. Think About All Of The Steps Involved:
1. The thought enters your mind that you want to cheat.
2. You decide to take action on the thought.
3. You stand up.
4. You walk over to the fridge or towards the door to go to dairy.
5. You open the fridge door or grab your keys and unlock the door.
6. You reach into the fridge or cupboard and start searching around for something that'll satisfy your taste buds. Or you walk out your door to the dairy.

These are a lot of steps and as you see, there are opportunities to reason with your own mind, and think "ok, do I really want to kill all my hard work in the gym by eating something that will only award me temporary satisfied,and make me look/feel worse?"

In the heat of the moment, when you're really tempted, the binge eater cannot control him/herself, acting on instinct only, without regard to what is going on. They eat simply for the sake of eating and will not stop until they're full.

Training The Mind
The solution here is to first learn to train the mind to eat for "nutrition" and not for "taste". Remember, the satisfaction which junk food provides is a pseudo-satisfaction, which is temporary. It occurs only in the mind, and not in the body. Train your mind to find satisfaction from doing your body good, and you will be well on your way to achieving all of your goals when it comes to building the body you've been working towards. Make sure you have plenty of diet snacks on hand such as chicken, egg whites, protein bars, vegetables ready if you feel the urge to cheat coming on. Or if you're not sure if you're hungry or not, just have a glass of water.

The second part of the solution is to realise that just as we saw up above, there are many steps between the time you "think" of eating something not on your dietary regimen, and the time you actually put the food into your mouth. It is necessary to dispel the thought at an earlier step, and not allow yourself to commit the thought to action if you cannot have control.

Lastly is the concept of "moderation". If you are going to have something that is not on your plan,
then make sure that you don't go all out and destroy all your hard work. Learn to achieve
satisfaction from a bite of something, and then fill yourself up with something a little more
nutritious late night, like a protein shake.

None of us are perfect, but we all have the ability to control the thoughts which enter our heads,
and the way we control those thoughts determines our successes or failures in life.

Lisa, Go Figure
25 June 09

Late night binge

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