Despite your best intentions to eat healthy foods in small, regularly spaced out portions throughout the day, life just sometimes gets in the way. The sins of not-so-healthy eating happen to everyone at some point or another, but this doesn’t mean that you are destined to a life of transgression. When you happen to fall off the wagon (and you probably will), here are six strategies to help you find nutritional salvation.

The Sin: The Café Catastrophe

Your morning meal is a giant latte and a huge banana-nut muffin — nearly 1,000 calories (most of them from fat). That's almost two-thirds of your daily caloric allotment before 10 a.m.

Your Salvation: A lunchtime turkey sandwich on whole wheat with as many vegetables as you can squeeze between two slices of bread.

Most breakfast muffins are deficient in fibre, leaving you far short of the 25 grams you need a day. Eating whole wheat bread and stuffing it with lots of vegetables will increase your fibre intake by 3 to 5 grams. Since the muffin and the latte already provide enough fat for two meals, this low-fat sandwich will balance things out. When choosing vegetable trimmings, go with a dark leafy green lettuce like romaine instead of the water-based and nutrient-low iceberg, and add cucumbers, sprouts and tomatoes for more fibre and nutrients. Eat fruit if you need a side, but try to keep the calories low at lunch.

The Sin: The Unhealthy Graze

Toast for breakfast, a handful of M&M's at noon, a few cookies, an apple, Doritos, two cups of coffee — in other words, lots of calories, but not a lot of fiber and nutrients.

Your Salvation: A low-carb, high-protein dinner.

The good news is that you probably don't feel overstuffed since you ate only small quantities throughout the day. The bad news is, through grazing, you tend to consume more calories and fat than you may realize by day's end. So even if you feel like you've had nothing to eat, you can't indulge in a big meal. Chances are you grazed on grains and starchy carbohydrates, so leave them out of your one real meal. Instead, heap a salad-size plate with lean protein like chicken or fish and vegetables to fill in the nutritional blanks without adding too many calories. Grill or bake your protein and skimp on sauce to make the meal low in fat and calories.

The Sin: A Greasy Lunch

You were starved and rushed for lunch, so you downed a double cheeseburger and small fries.

Your Salvation: A gigantic salad at dinner, garnished with chicken strips and black beans.

Obviously you want to offset the high fat in all that refined fast food, but fat and calories aren’t the only culprits this time, because fast foods are laden with sodium. There is about a teaspoon of salt in your average fast-food meal, which is almost 75 per cent of your RDA.

You can’t do anything to erase all that extra salt you ate, but cutting back helps the body rebalance quickly and may minimize the time you feel bloated. Fresh foods, since they're naturally low in salt, are a good place to start. The protein of chicken will make your meal feel substantial, while beans will help fill you up with fibre (7 grams per cup) and put your digestive system back on track. Dress your salad with a splash of olive oil and vinegar to sidestep the sodium in bottled dressings.

The Sin: Party Gluttony

You’ve got 12 hours until a high-fat, high-calorie night of pizza and beer. You’re going to rock the night away.

Your Salvation: Plan your meals ahead of time.

Eat well, but eat fewer calories than you usually would in a given day. Trim calories a little at breakfast and lunch in preparation for a larger amount later. Eat only half of your lunch at noon and then the other half just before you leave for supper to help curb appetite. Whatever you do, don't skip meals. A little food in your system will keep you satiated, but none at all will make you ravenous at supper and more likely to overindulge.

The Sin: Happy Hour Drinks

You stop off after work for a little wine and cheese. And then some more wine. There's not much left in the calorie budget for dinner.

Your Salvation: A bowl of vegetable soup and an apple.

There are plenty of calories and protein in cheese and empty carbohydrates in wine (and alcohol in general), so make your choices count. Load up on fruits and vegetables, which are often lacking at most social outings. Chances are, you won't feel much like cooking, and heating up soup requires little time or fine motor skills. Be sure to stock up on low-sodium soup and drink a tall glass of water to help rehydrate you after the alcohol.

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back-up plan

You can avoid allowing yourself to completely backslide into bad eating habits by keeping up your drive to fuel your body well. You may be unable to avoid the occasional pitfalls, such as lack of time, planning or overindulgent social outings, but you can balance these out with healthy eating strategies that you follow most of the time.