Easter ChEating

All over the state dieters will be Easter ChEating on Sunday! 

What is Easter ChEating?

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Some people consider eating certain food, or too much food to be “cheating.” While they consume food, they’re consumed with guilt. “Being bad” on a diet should be avoided, but many can’t avoid it. It seems the harder they try, the more they ChEat, the worse they feel, and the harder it is to move onto getting to their weight goal.

I’d like to tell you there’s no such thing as cheating. Eating is what animals, and that includes the human animal, do.

Rigid and restrictive diets are counterproductive. We’re told that the benefit of a restrictive diet plan are:

  • minimizes or ends craving
  • makes it easier to maintain control
  • easy to follow due to its simplicity

What we’re told about restrictive diets seems logical. Indeed, it seems so logical many of us have tried them over and over and over. Each time they end with the same disappointing results and we blame ourselves. If we had the necessary discipline and willpower we would have stuck to the diet and be rewarded with a thin, healthy body and no cravings that would threaten our continued success.

So much for the logic! Rigid and restrictive diets are more likely to cause:

  • overwhelming cravings
  • difficulty maintaining any control whatsoever
  • difficult to follow due to its extreme restrictions
  • massive case of guilt
  • self-recrimination
  • self doubt
  • and usually weight gain (a little or a lot!)

Now is the time to dump the restrictive diet, before Easter gets here. Now is the time to realize that “eat happens!” The nicest, thinnest, healthiest people on the planet eat food with a lot of sugar and fat from time to time. They don’t agonize over it. They enjoy it as part of their healthful eating and lifestyle.

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When they cheat, if they cheat at all, it’s not with food because eating isn’t cheating! Cheating is doing things like lying to your significant other, fudging your income taxes, or looking at your neighbor’s paper during a test!

There is no such thing as Easter ChEating! It’s Easter Eating and to go beyond you regular day-to-day eating on a special holiday is more than okay! It’s a long-term skill necessary for good health and maintaining a healthy weight!

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Happy Easter!

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Now go get to eating some holiday goodies and don’t feel guilty! Monday you can go back to your normal day-to-day eating and exercising behaviors. You can focus on the vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and lean protein.

Jackie Conn

About Jackie Conn

Jackie Conn is married and has four grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is a Weight Watchers success story. She's a weight loss expert with 25 years of experience guiding women and men to their weight-related goals. Her articles on weight management have been published in health, family and women's magazines. She has been a regular guest on Channel 5 WABI news, FOX network morning program Good Day Maine and 207 on WCSH.