What The Hell…
This is actually a diagnosed syndrome believe it or not.
You’re on a role, you’ve done so well, then, then you have a night out you’re with friends and you get a little peer pressure, you have ONE drink because it is only one, right? Wrong, that one then turns into ‘What the hell, I will get back on it tomorrow and have a little less for the next few days’, pushing that pressure onto your ‘future self’.
Another scenario, you’ve been on point all week, you’ve hit all your routines, you then go to open that box of chocolates that your client got for you, you’ll have just the one, one minute later ‘what the hell, I’ll just hit an extra session tomorrow, I’ll eat a little less tomorrow’ again pushing the pressure onto your future self.
One last scenario, you’re out, you’re on top of your move goals and you’re going to the nice steakhouse with your wife, you’ve hit the gym and you feel real good so you think, cool, I will just have a good steak and some salad or veg on the side.
The waiter comes, they ask if you want fries with that and there it is again, smacked between the eyes ‘What the hell’ you end up having dessert and a couple of beers at the same time ‘What the hell, I am out anyway let’s have it all and I will eat a bit less tomorrow and hit a couple extra sessions’.
We rationalise with ourselves day after day and this is a cycle, a cycle where you go for it, you indulge, you regret it and you feel bad for it, what’s the first thing you do to make you feel better? Oh, I’ve already been bad what’s the difference if I have some more, and you go back to what you indulged in and overdo it. Kelly McGonigal wrote about this in the book The Willpower Instinct “Giving in makes you feel bad about yourself, which motivates you to do something to feel better. And what’s the cheapest, fastest strategy for feeling better? Often the thing you feel bad about, It’s not giving in that guarantees the bigger relapse. It’s the feelings of shame, guilt, loss of control and loss of hope that follow the first relapse.”
The good thing here is that there is a way of breaking this cycle, recognition is the first step and from there I have found consistent accountability with clients alongside not actually being so restrictive in the first place helps them not literally dive off of the hypothetical cliff to the bottom of that entire pint of Ben & Jerrys (full disclosure, I am pretty much all in on #TeamNoLids, sorry not sorry). I used to find I would feel bad for days after a binge, I would beat myself up and show strong signs of disordered eating back in my very VERY restrictive days competing on the bodybuilding stage, something I am not an advocate of now and why I have such a high success rate working with ridiculously busy successful individuals around the world through my online coaching.
Another thing I used to find is writing things down after this cycle has happened, how do I feel? How would I communicate this with someone else? I would slow down and put things into perspective, I’ve been consistent and loaded a hell of a lot of deposits into my ‘health’ bank account, whether those were workouts, good meals or sessions of meditation, it is all logged in there, a couple bad meals isn’t going to break me. Then I would also be prepared, I have binged out, I will no doubt feel pretty crap for a couple days then I will be 100% back to my normal self, minus the extra bloat.
Also, pushing things onto your future self is one of the biggest forms of procrastination, have a think before you do something, go binge out, go purchase a large costing item you don’t actually need and so on, does it meet your future goals, how will you feel when you hit those goals? How will you feel if you don’t and you’re actually a lot further away from those goals?
Put it all into perspective.
My clients have managed to get some amazing results simply by having the accountability to chat with me before they experience these events, and even afterwards, ‘I fell off Ollie, what now?’, ‘Jump straight back on the ball, let’s get these results on point’.
If you’re ready to quit that ‘What the hell’ effect and get accountability for your health optimization, let’s talk right now.