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“Let me run in the morning to earn some pizza in the evening”
“I ate a pizza last night; I will exercise today to burn it off”
How commonly have we done it? Very very common. Someone may argue what is wrong with this mindset. Well, this thinking is wrong at two levels – Logical(Scientific) and psychological level.
Let me cover logic first.
I will assume that you wish to offset the pizza with exercising because you want to keep your weight in check.
The calories conundrum: A slice of pizza can be anywhere between 200-300 calories. Could be more depending upon the ingredients. Usually a slice is not what people usually limit to. There are accompaniments as well. Just to give you an idea..running 30 mins burns approximately about 250 KCal. You can just burn off a slice with 30 mins running. For every slice, add another 30 mins. So you see if you go a little overboard with your pizza, you would be running for hours.
If you are going to use the strategy of running to offset the pizza, you should know that – Long duration/long distance running causes muscle damage. Muscles are needed to keep the metabolic rate high. And with loss of muscle, metabolism drops, causing your body to burn less calories at rest.
The effect on your hormones: This is not a simple calorie in calorie out equation. The damage a slice of pizza has on your entire system cannot be counted by just calories. Hormones that get impacted are Insulin, Leptin, Glucagon, Cortisol, Estrogen and more. In the long run a constant attack on these hormones will lead to weight gain. It does not simply remain a calorie in calorie out equation. It will also result in loss of health.
Psychological issue with this pattern of thinking: This kind of thinking establishes a pattern of reward and punishment in our mind. Exercise is the punishment and pizza is the reward. There is also the emotion of guilt with having a Pizza- why else would you whatsapp it a “Cheat Meal”?. So the reward leads to guilt and hence you punish yourself. See the flaw?
This wiring can prove to be dangerous towards long term health. Attaching punishment to an activity will decrease the likelihood of you exercising. Thinking of junk as a reward will increase the likelihood of you eating food that is not healthy for you.
What’s the way out?
Separate exercising from eating.
Let’s understand that exercising is not conditional. Nor is it a punishment. If you want long term health and fitness, you will need to reprogram your mind that exercise should be done regardless of Pizza or a Pint of Beer or a packet of laddoos. Get into the practise of exercising 30-40 mins everyday, 6 days a week with 1 day of rest.
Develop a healthy relationship with food. We should be able to enjoy pizza, cake,laddoo and beer occasionally without feeling guilty. If we eat healthy 90% of the time and give in and feel happy over these indulgences 10% of the time, it’s fine. There is no need of guilt and there is no need to whatsapp these as “Cheat Meals”.
Think of your body as a temple. Allow the right things to happen to it. When you treat it well, it will treat you well too.
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