We often think of ways to recover or bounce back after eating unhealthily. However, doing so will only bring you results in the short term. Read on to uncover why resetting your body isn’t helpful and what you can do instead.
Do you often need to reset your body after eating something you’ve labeled “bad”? If yes, you are not alone. Most people feel guilty after eating something off-limits and immediately wonder how to bounce back.
However, resetting or doing actions to make up for what you ate is not advised, healthy, or likely to produce the desired outcomes. The reason you may have had this idea or taken action to undo eating foods you considered wrong is very understandable.
Most information surrounding food and nutrition emphasizes maintaining a flawless lifestyle; if you don’t, you should perform a detox, reset, cleanse, work out more intensely, eat less, and the list continues.
You might be asking why there are better courses of action than resetting and what I should do in its place. We’ll get started if you continue to read!
Why do you want to bounce back or reset after eating something off-limits?
Food morality is the idea that we should classify certain foods as either “good” or “bad,” “right” or “wrong,” and is where the concepts of “resetting” and “making up” for bad food consumption originate.
When discussing “excellent food” regarding dieting, we use nutrient-dense foods as examples. The terms “clean,” “accurate,” “right,” and “perfect” may also be used to describe them. We often describe them as foods that, when consistently consumed, are linked to favorable health results. Consider lean proteins, fruit, non-starchy carbohydrates, starchy carbohydrates high in fiber, and healthy fats.
Bad food, on the other hand, is typically used to refer to foods that are either extremely low in nutritional content or that, when regularly taken, may have a detrimental impact on health. Therefore, we consider bad foods to be off-limits. Examples that we usually think of as bad food are ice cream, cake, chocolates, etc.
What is the problem with categorizing food as “good” or “bad”?
The issue with categorizing food as good or bad is that it can spiral out of control and complicate your relationship with food. Food tends to become right or wrong, and the stuff we consume or don’t eat starts to control how we feel when we give good and bad labels to it.
For instance, we could feel proud and assured if we make “excellent” decisions. Nonetheless, we may experience guilt and shame when we make “poor” decisions. So, naturally, this causes us to strive to limit or avoid eating foods that fall into the bad category.
But since we’re only human, we frequently cannot do so, and for a valid reason as well! Foods that fall into the “bad” category are often delicious and things we secretly yearn to eat, which is acceptable and mindful.
We are continuously at odds with ourselves due to these strict dietary regulations and moral absolutes. We tell ourselves we shouldn’t eat bad foods, but we know we truly want them, so we give in eventually. Finally, this makes us want to reset and compensate for the poor meals we first ate. Unfortunately, a disordered state of these beliefs and behaviors can also frequently result in a negative connection with food and your body, ultimately damaging your emotional, mental, and physical well-being.
How does bouncing back after unhealthy eating affects your health in the long term?
You may be thinking to yourself right now, certain foods aren’t healthy for me, and I shouldn’t have them, so what’s wrong with feeling guilty about eating them and resetting or bouncing back in response? Or because these foods aren’t good for you, what’s the harm in feeling guilty about having them?
Despite how innocent this perspective may seem, it causes a great deal of hurt and damage in the long term. It results in an unhealthy, unbalanced relationship with eating. We end up in a situation in which we are either dieting and adhering to stringent dietary restrictions or blindly overindulging to the uncomfortable level. Food guilt, worry, and anxiety are the results of everything. And we get trapped in the unbalanced all-or-nothing cycle.
How does bouncing back after unhealthy eating put you in an all-or-nothing cycle?
Let us consider our eating habits as a straight line. One end of it is the all-in way of eating that focuses only on nourishing or good foods. And on the other end of the line, we have the all-out way of eating where we eat “bad” food.
When we try to reset to make up for poor eating, we perform “pendulum swinging” on that line as we go back and forth between the two ends of our eating patterns.
We quickly transition from the “all-in” end of nourishment to the enjoyment side of the Balancing Spectrum.
The all-in outcome might entail even more restrictions on “bad” foods, calorie and macro counting, stringent dietary guidelines, and set meal times to compensate for consuming poor meals.
So what, in your opinion, occurs when we linger too long on the “all-in” end of the line? As you may have expected, we immediately shift back to the extreme, divisive end of the spectrum. It’s not a smooth, graceful slide to a little more delight; instead, it’s a full-on swing to quick fulfillment and happiness only.
Think about a pendulum in this situation. If we push the pendulum too far in one direction, it will eventually unavoidably swing stronger and faster in the opposite direction. People share this similar experience when they eat.
The all-out approach may manifest as binge eating, overeating, and a lack of self-control when it involves eating with little regard for nutrition, and the all-or-nothing cycle continues.
What should you do instead of bouncing back after eating “bad” foods?
We now understand that judging foods as evil and making up for eating them leads to an unbalanced, unfavorable relationship with food. It causes a continuous swing between all-in and all-out eating. So, what can we do instead?
Take morality out of the food.
We want to get rid of morality and value both food and fun. We should value all food for what it is, pure and simple.
We must always keep in mind that food is just food. Either it provides sustenance, amusement, or both. There are no good or bad foods, in actuality.
When we can accomplish this, we can choose authentic and appropriate foods. Our desire to compensate for consuming poor meals has diminished. Instead of firmly and wildly swinging back and forth from one extreme to the other like a pendulum, we can easily find the perfect balance in our food.
Say yes to both nutrition and enjoyment.
We may put nutrition and delight first when we don’t view food as good or bad and consume a balanced diet. Some illustrations of what balanced eating entails include eating things only for enjoyment, not feeling bad about eating food that is tasty but not necessarily nutritious, eating nourishing foods out of genuine desire, no longer having “cheat” days, etc.
