6 Ways to recover from an unhealthy sugar binge

Guilty As Charged: 6 Ways to recover from an unhealthy sugar binge

Angela Goh

16 Sep 2016

updated the Friday, September 16, 2016

1/6
Eat protein
Despite the size of that block of chocolate you just indulged in, you’ll no doubt be feeling hungry again in no time. That’s because of your rapidly declining blood-sugar levels making your body crave food for extra energy. Rather than reaching for the second block, satisfy your cravings with a high-protein snack instead. Some peanut butter, a boiled egg, or protein bar will keep your body sated until your next (low-carb!) meal.
2/6
Get some sun
After that macaron binge, you’re surely feeling lethargic with the inevitable blood-sugar crash. If you can manage to pry yourself from the couch, research has found that simply being exposed to sunlight is enough to improve alertness. Combine this with a few glasses of cool water, and you’ll be feeling perky again in no time!
3/6
Burn it off
While you can’t erase all those calories with a simple run around the block (it takes 3 lengths of a football field to burn off a single potato chip after all!), a little cardio certainly doesn’t hurt. Rather than worrying about burning off that binge, doing some cardio helps to reduce your appetite and regulate your blood sugar, effectively stopping your cravings for an extra biscuit or two.
4/6
Cut carbs later on
If your sugar binge was early in the day (we’re looking at you, delicious breakfast muffins!), cutting out carbs in the rest of your meals for the day helps to keep your calorie count at a reasonable level, as well as stabilises your blood-sugar levels. If you follow up your sugary bout with unnecessary carbs, the blood-sugar crash can hit harder than expected. Cutting out carbs ensures you have the right level of energy to get through the day.
5/6
Banish leftovers
Once your body gets a taste of high-sugar and high-fat foods, it tends to crave more and more. This is due to the rapidly declining glucose levels, causing your body to want more energy to keep going. As such, simply having unhealthy food in plain sight makes you much more likely to cave and begin your second binge of the day. If you do slip up, remove further temptation by putting whatever you’re devouring back in the cupboard (or bin!) as quickly as possible.
6/6
Stay positive
Finally, no matter how big the slip up, don’t let it be an excuse to abandon your diet altogether! It’s all too easy to sneak in an extra cheat-day after a binge, but it’s also not too hard to turn it around and get back on track as quickly as possible. In fact, all it takes is a simple healthy snack to have your body stop craving high-sugar and high-fat foods to keep you going. You can do it!

Had one too many blocks of chocolate this morning?

You caved. We’ve all done it at some point; the diet is going swimmingly, your exercise regime is on point, then a friend visits with some home-baked cookies and it all goes down the drain. And you don’t just eat one either. Next thing you know, the whole plate, crumbs and all, have disappeared and you’re left feeling guilty and lethargic.

While there’s no easy way to erase those calories, there are some simple things you can do to keep them from turning to fat right away, and to stop you from suffering through the inevitable sugar crash. Here’s 6 dietary damage control tips to help reverse a sugar binge and get your body back on track!

Angela Goh

Photos: Getty Images

Burn Fat, Fight Cancer: 8 Amazing health benefits of matcha

Binge Away: 7 Foods that will never make you fat

Calorie Crusher: Can putting on muscle make you burn fat faster?

Horoscope Predictions: From 17 to 23 September