Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Everybody Cheats or Do They?

I can't tell you how many times I have heard this or read this over the years on many different boards or on Facebook.

I am not referring to refeed or cheats that are supposed to be in your diet or when a trainer says have a cheat meal.  I believe 100% in refeeds and/or cheats while in contest prep. I am talking about when people cheat when they are not supposed to whether it is one bite of peanut butter or eaten entire boxes of cereal or even just a cookie or two or skipped WOs or cardio. The issue I have is when they post in their journals they have cheated on their plan then tons of people come in and pat them on the back and say "Oh it's OK everybody cheats" even when a person has repeatedly cheated. This is pertaining to unauthorized cheating on a contest plan.

How is this helping? I don't get it

1) Not everyone cheats, I do not cheat during prep and I know others who do not cheat.
2) I assume my competitors do not cheat which makes sure I don't cheat
3) By allowing yourself to think "everybody cheats" you are already giving yourself permission to do it by assuming it will happen because you believe EVERYBODY CHEATS

Do I think people should post anything mean in those journals? of course not but the words should be maybe to ask the person how bad they want this, remind them it is a competition and others aren't cheating instead of enabling the person in their cheating

When i go into prep I remember I CHOSE to do it
I chose to follow a diet
I chose to do the WOs
I chose to do the cardio
I chose to do whatever sacrifice it take to be my very best

And when you get through a prep without ever cheating or missing a workout or missing a cardio regardless how you place you can say you did your very best and you gave it 100% there was nothing more you could have done that alone makes you a winner

Often I am misunderstood when talking about this subject. I am not asking:
is it ok to cheat? Do cheat meals have their place?
Why do people cheat?
The purpose of cheat meals and refeeds?
Do we support people in their thread when they do cheat?

I am asking specifically why people chose the words EVERYBODY CHEATS when they respond in the thread. Is it because they believe everybody does cheat? Is it because they just don't know what else to say and feel saying that is being supportive? Is it because they themselves can't stick to thier diet? Yes people do fall off but no not everybody cheats.

My feeling is that saying "everybody cheats" is detrimental Why would the person think they can be strong enough to stick to their plan if everybody else cheats? how can one stick to a plan if they go in thinking everybody cheats? 

Go into your diet knowing you can stick to it 100%. Know that you will be standing next to others onstage who did not cheat.  Have faith that you are strong enough and can dot it!

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