Last week I blogged about how just a little cheating could result in a much longer journey to goal. While taking a little - or a lot - longer to reach goal may be reason enough to not cheat, there is an even more important reason to stay on plan.
My friend, Freida, is a nurse and also a health coach and told me that "making "wiggle room" on this plan can actually be very harmful. Eating 'off plan' foods, such as wine, can keep your body out of fat burning. This means your body will not burn the fat needed for energy to get through the day. Without fat burning, we ask our bodies to function on 800 to 1000 calories we ingest each day. This could mean no weight loss and may lead to metabolism slow down or worse yet, muscle wasting as the body begins to starve. Choosing to just cheat "a little," can actually cause you great harm!"
In addition to being a nurse and a health coach, Freida is also one of the nurses who hosts the weekly Take Shape for Life nurses's call - she knows what she's talking about!
Her comment really puts "a little cheating" on an entirely new level. I've known individuals who insist that they will follow 5&1 plus have a glass of wine or a piece of fruit every day, reasoning that their calories are still low and they're still losing weight, even if the weight loss is slower. But fat burning protects our bodies, including our muscles. This isn't an extremely low-calorie diet, as some reason. 5&1 is carefully designed to provide all of the nutrition we need while we safely drop our calories, and we can safely drop our calories to under 1,000 because our bodies are in fat burning.
Thanks, Freida, for providing another - and critically important - perspective on this issue! Staying on plan is not only the fastest way to reach goal, it is also the safest and healthiest way to get there. As always, the choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)
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