DAY 14: Two Signs Your Eating is Out of Control

As a fitness professional, I see super active people hit frustrating plateaus all the time. One thing I have learned is there is always a reason for it, we just have to look for the signs. I encourage everyone to never settle on less than best results and to never stop digging deep to uncover areas that need improvement so you can bust through stubborn plateaus. Today I will talk about two signs your eating is out of control and you might not even know it.

1. You workout all the time. 

If you exercise all the time, your eating is likely out of control. Exercising a lot doesn’t make you a bad person but it is a sign something is out of balance. It may mean you are dependent on excessive exercise to counter balance excessive eating. If you were able to control your eating better, you could relax a little and not have to workout so much.

This can be a surprise to friends because an over-exerciser often hides their “sins”. They enjoy identifying with fitness and are more prone to hide their unhealthy habits. This person posts healthy meals on social media or proudly strolls their grocery cart around when it’s full of healthy groceries, but would die if someone saw their pizza boxes in the recycle bin.

Truth is, we all prefer to hide our boo-boos to a certain degree. However, even if no one sees us eating the pizza, and we throw away all the evidence, there will still be evidence of our poor choices eventually. What we eat in private will eventually show up in public – no matter how hard we try to hide it.

2. You are always on a diet but not getting the results you want.

If you feel like you are constantly on a diet, chances are, your eating is out of control. Again, this is a sign something is out of balance. Weight loss normally comes down to one thing – calories in vs. calories out. The problem is, there are a lot of mistakes people make that sabotage progress.

For instance, you can diet six days a week and blow all your progress on that seventh day. Or, maybe you are one who hardly eats all day but you blow it every night. If you really want progress, your diet needs to be consistent, all day, seven days a week, for several weeks in a row.

Another common mistake is simply eating more calories than you think. I have had countless conversations with people who were shocked when they started tracking calories. The truth is, most people have no idea how many calories they are eating.

A simple fix is counting every calorie you eat for 7 days straight. If you lose weight, then you know you have been eating more than you thought and you can repeat the process another 7 days until you reach your goal.

Balance

Balance is the key to lasting success. Exercise is great in healthy moderation but it shouldn’t be punishment for overeating or an attempt to make up for unhealthy habits. And, you don’t have to diet for the rest of your life. You do have to be accountable for what you put in your body for the rest of your life, but that is the case with all aspects of our life. We are accountable for how we treat our body.

Lastly, we need to be careful to not fall into the trap of planned failure, where we actually schedule our workouts and eating around satisfying our cravings. Look at what Romans says.

“…make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Romans 13:14

I’m not saying that eating ice cream is wrong but we simply need to be willing to loosen our firm grip on unhealthy habits. We should be thinking of ways to resist it, practice control and hold ourselves more accountable so we can live healthy balanced fun lives.

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Scripture of the Day:

“…make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Romans 13:14

Mantra of the Day:

“What you eat in private will eventually what you wear in public.” – Bonnie Pfiester

30 Days of Motivation