Lifestyle

5 Reasons Why Cheating On Your Diet Is Exactly Like Cheating On Your Boyfriend

by Ashley Fern
Stocksy

Cheating rarely results in anything good regardless of what or whom it is that you are cheating on (unless you don't get caught, right?).

Whether it's your partner, your diet or a test, what you did will eventually catch up with you. Sure, at the time, you may think it's fine and you'll get away with it, but the feelings you will be left with afterwards are nothing to be desired, especially if it's your diet you are cheating on.

Unfortunately, unlike cheating on your partner, everyone knows if you've been cheating on your diet. But as with everything in life, it's best just to accept this, move on and vow to do better the next chance you get.

You may get a ton of chances to restart your diet, but I can guarantee that you will not get those same chances with your partner. 

When it comes to cheating, you are probably wondering what these two very distinct entities have in common. Well, there are more similarities than you think...

1. It makes you feel guilty

You put all of this hard work and effort into dieting and exercising, so as soon as you cave into temptation, you feel flat-out guilty.

Why would you do this to yourself after dedicating your precious time to eating well? Why would you do this after you spent over $100 on a bathing suit? You can't help but feel like sh*t, just like you would (hopefully) if you did this to your partner.

Guilt is a heavy feeling and one that is not easy to get rid of, especially when you know you have to wear a bathing suit this upcoming weekend. Ugh, the bread shaming never ends, does it?

2. It forces you to rationalize

I worked so hard, I deserved to eat a bagel for breakfast. But he was flirting with other girls, so it's fine that I cheated.

Neither of these things is okay, but you can keep trying to rationalize. This is usually the initial step taken to relieve your guilt, but all you are doing is making excuses to yourself.

3. If you destroy the evidence, did it ever really happen?

If you inhaled an entire pizza at 4 am, but threw out the empty box before you went to sleep, did you really even eat the pizza?

If there's no evidence besides the knowledge of the incident in your head, will anyone ever know the truth? Sure, you may know, but if you keep it to yourself, no one else will.

Destroy the wrapper, destroy the evidence and vow to yourself you will do better from here on out.

4. You spend time convincing yourself you will make up for it

Okay, so you caved and ate a sandwich bigger than your head; it's okay, you'll go back to dieting hardcore tomorrow.

Hell, you'll even double up on your workout just to be safe. Don't be too hard on yourself, it happens to the best of us... I mean you only cheated on your diet this one time...

After you cheat on your partner, you find yourself in a similar situation. Even if he doesn't know you did anything wrong, you make every effort to quell your guilt and make up for it. As long as you feel better in your mind, that's all that should matter... right?

5. It drives you back to square one

Cheating, of any variety, forces you to backtrack over all of your progress and start from the beginning all over again.

You must restart your diet plan, your exercise plan and your mindset. The little bit of temptation doesn't really seem all that worth it as you deal with the consequences of your actions, now does it?

But, seriously, what's worse: gaining back the five pounds you took weeks burning off or having your partner not trust you for a little while? Actually, maybe don't answer that, at least not out loud.

Photo via Wild Fox Tumblr