Too many people look at health and fitness this way:
Exercise = Good
Food = Bad
That's not how we should be thinking.
THE "CHEAT MEAL" PROBLEM
You've heard the term cheat meal. The word "cheat" assigns a negative meaning to it. If it's cheating, it must be bad.
And making matters worse, in order for the meal to live up to the meaning we've assigned to it, well, then it's going to have to be extra bad.
This kind of thinking is a recipe for disaster. Pun intended.
Don't demonize food. Instead, make choices that are in alignment with your goals. And if you're going to indulge, do it intentionally. But don't assign a value or emotion to it.
THE PUNISHMENT PROBLEM
Don't treat exercise as a punishment for making poor food choices. And don't use it as an excuse for making them either.
"I'll burn it off at the gym tomorrow" is a trap. So is "I worked out today so I earned this." Both are tying exercise to guilt, and guilt is not a sustainable motivator.
Live in the middle, instead of at the extremes.
THE REFRAME
Rewarding yourself with food is a bad idea. So remove the term "cheat meal" from your vocabulary.
Punishing yourself with exercise is also a bad idea. So stop framing your workouts as the bill that comes due for what you ate.
Food is fuel. Some fuel supports your goals better than other fuel. That's it. No guilt, no judgment, no morality.
Exercise is a thing you do for your body because it makes your body better. Not a thing you do to your body because you feel like you owe it.
Most of us thrive when we remove guilt and punishment from the equation. Start there, and the rest gets a lot easier.
Once you've got that cleared up, shoot me a reply and let me know how this new way of thinking about health and fitness feels to you.