To give yourself a cheat day or not?

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  • ahanson6
    ahanson6 Posts: 102
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    I think that food is one of the greatest pleasures in life. I love to cook. I love to eat. AND I love to be healthy. I am not going to live the rest of my life without Brie baked in phylo dough or greasy cheeseburgers or bacon. I don't use the word cheat. I call it my splurge meal or my treat meal. My splurge meal is my way of rewarding myself after hard work, and it helps me reinforce the lifestyle changes that I am trying to implement. I don't ever want to be afraid of food or hate food. I don't want to feel guilty for eating. I want to enjoy food responsibly and treating myself once a week lets me practice moderation.

    Edit: Oh and when I have a treat/splurge meal I still log everything! I still hold myself accountable for anything that I put into my body. Sometimes I'm even surprised when my treat meal isn't as bad for me as I thought it was going to be. It may be a treat, but it still counts!
  • monkeybuttsmommy
    monkeybuttsmommy Posts: 343 Member
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    Being too rigid either way is dangerous for eventual outcome. MODERATION is key and EVERY health expert will tell you that. Denying any sweets, fats, salts or whatever is NOT good for long term sucess. Being afraid of food is also unhealthy and by DENYING anything will cause you to crave it more. Having a piece of cake once a week while every other day your eating healthy and excercising doesn't make you fat. Eating cake 3X's a day along with cheeseburgers, chips, soda and candy will. EXCESS is the enemy, not the type of food.
  • monkeybuttsmommy
    monkeybuttsmommy Posts: 343 Member
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    I think that food is one of the greatest pleasures in life. I love to cook. I love to eat. AND I love to be healthy. I am not going to live the rest of my life without Brie baked in phylo dough or greasy cheeseburgers or bacon. I don't use the word cheat. I call it my splurge meal or my treat meal. My splurge meal is my way of rewarding myself after hard work, and it helps me reinforce the lifestyle changes that I am trying to implement. I don't ever want to be afraid of food or hate food. I don't want to feel guilty for eating. I want to enjoy food responibly and treating myself once a week lets me practice moderation.

    Exactly! Thank you!
  • ColoradoRobin
    ColoradoRobin Posts: 510 Member
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    It's a treat meal (not a whole day for me), not a cheat meal. Enjoy it, but don't go crazy. Watch your net calories for the week, and if there's still a deficit, then there's no problem. This is a new way of life, not punishment or a transitory change. In order to make your new way of eating fit into your life, you have to allow for celebrations with family and friends, spaghetti dinners at your kids' school, office lunches, cravings, and Chinese buffets (I <3 dim sum).

    There are plenty of experts that recommend going over your usual calories for one day every week or so to help combat the dreaded adaptive thermogenesis (starvation mode). Our bodies have evolved to deal with days when you killed the mammoth, and days when it got away. I'm not doing paleo, but some of the principles they follow make sense from an evolutionary perspective. Enjoy your healthier living and eating, including treat days!
  • LyndseyMcKnight7
    LyndseyMcKnight7 Posts: 88
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    I have lost 70 pounds over the last 12 months and have given myself a cheat day every single week. At first it was a full on cheat day, I ate whatever I wanted all day long. Now that I am a lot closer to my goal, I try to still have the things I want on that day, but stay under my maintenance calories or at least under 2500. I think you have earned it, so cheat away! It's good for your metabolism too!
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    I don't like the idea of a "cheat" day, I don't see the point of deciding to fool myself.
    It might only be words but if I decide to have a "cheat day", to me that reinforces that I'm doing something nasty and unsustainable that I don't want to do.
    But.... what works for me is to eat treats, go out to dinner, have a few alcoholic drinks, enjoy a staff lunch etc, but to count and log the calories. Ideally I try to stay under my cals but if I go over by a few hundred I don't sweat it, just make sure to not repeat it too soon.
    So, do what works for you, I definitely support eating a variety of foods and enjoying special days and celebrations, but I don't support a lifestyle you have to "cheat" on.
  • Danidelion
    Danidelion Posts: 70
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    wow so many responses lol. I am definently going to take everyone's opinions into consideration, I think I like the idea of a "cheat meal" :]
  • shaunshaikh
    shaunshaikh Posts: 616 Member
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    I don't "cheat" at all, I just eat and log everything. If I want something that's not perfectly healthy and clean then I log it and just make up for it somewhere else.

    I just really don't believe you should do something you're not willing to do the rest of your life. Learn how to eat ice cream without gorging on a 1,000 calorie banana split. Learn how to have a cookie without eating half the carton. Learn how to order your favorite meal at a restaurant and only eat half a portion.

    The whole cheating thing is just an unneccessary negative connotation.
  • mberi66
    mberi66 Posts: 17 Member
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    I agree that cheat days/ cheat meals are perfectly fine.

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