cheat day-thoughts?

Maystar80

ay ay ay. friday night I stuffed my tummy but it was totally paleo. went to sonnys and had some ribs, 1/2 sweet potato and broccoli and later at the movies I had roasted pecans. fuller than I'd like, but all decent stuff.
Then today started well with a workout and healthy breakfast but I went to a baby shower and along with fruit and meatballs (the good stuff) I had crackers & cheese, tiny bit of pasta, and lots of cake and icecream and white chocolate until I got full and simply wanted no more. For the whole 6 days before I was completely paleo and actually felt pretty great. I told myself I'd go an entire month with no cheating, but wouldn't feel bad if I ended up cheating once/week. I think I indulge about once a week on sweets and end up reminding myself how bad I feel after eating them. But the rest of the week I don't have any or even crave any.

Anybody else have similar experiences but still have good weight loss outcomes?

bluebird321

Having a cheat day has worked fine for me (so far). I try not to go overboard and it is nice to have a day without thinking about what I eat.

SweetxCatastrophe

I had a cheat day at a baby shower too, it set me back an entire week. I started off great..meats, salad, fruit, then we got into some sangria (not the mom to be obviously) and even though I skipped the cake, I gained and felt like crap. I will not cheat like that again.

volume77

if it works for you... i dont see why not.
it doesnt work for me ;( i feel much more at peace and serene when im consistant
not to mention if youre doing low carb and are in ketosis then the cheat will probably knock you out of ketosis and its just annoying to have to keep going back and forth and cause cravings like that for no reason

blinkinglight

It doesn't work for me either, at least not while I'm trying to lose body fat. I'll have 1 or 2 meals with gluten or sugar and I bloat up. I'll "gain" 5-6 pounds and it takes all week for me to shed it again. I can see myself allowing sugar or grains once or twice a week when I get where I want to be, but not now.

If you look, feel and perform well with a "cheat" (trying not to use that word) meal (a whole DAY seems like a lot) then I don't see why it would hurt!

Jindra12

If you decided to take a cheat day then you will still need to control yourself. For example I would cut a slice of cake into half. 1/8 cup of ice cream, etc. If it is paleo food then take as much as you want, for example I ate 7 devil eggs in a day. Once a week to cheat is too much. Once a month is more reasonable.

JackShow70

I am just finishing my 2nd week of Paleo. I was dropping about a pound a day the first 5 days. On day 6 I had a cheat day (not planned). I had lasagna (3 servings) and a brownie. Not only did my weight loss stop, I had put on 2 pounds the next day. The one cheat meal seemed to throw me off track for the rest of the week. The lasagna and brownie were pretty good but NOT worth it. Maybe if i had one serving instead of going overboard, it would have been ok. I am with volume77, if it works for you then great! But it is not worth it for me.

ItsMeRebekah

ive cheated once. it made my stomach hurt so bad =(
never again!

skwidlund

I will cheat once in a while, as long as it's still gluten-free and if its worth it. I don't plan a cheat day - it just wouldn't work for me and would turn into a cheat week...or month. I love this blog post and the flowchart and have used it a few times to decide whether it's worth it or now: http://whole9life.com/2011/04/whole9s-guide-to-nutritional-off-roading/

caraiselite

i plan my cheat days.
last time, i cheated for a week or 2 because it was my birthday, i had the flu, went to a birthday party.. just lots of excuses :P
i felt like crap. i gained 10 pounds! but lost 8 of it within like 5 days. that damn water weight!

i will cheat on holidays, MAYBE labour day, haven't decided. depends if there's parties.
halloween, turkey day, xmas, nye (maybe) val day, easter, memorial day, then july 4 (or july 8, my bday)

they're pretty evenly spaced out (other than xmas - nye)

monkeydharma

I have a hard time with the whole CONCEPT of 'cheating'. Eating this way is a life choice. One either does it or not. I expect to give it the same dedication I give my wife - and no, I'm not planning to cheat on her, either.

That being said, there ARE times when I decide that a meal might contain foods I have decided not to eat normally. Whether it is a special meal at a special restaurant, or a smidge of birthday cake - I decide to indulge, much the same way that I, as a non-smoker, will accept breathing a few fumes when my daughter has a cigarette on the deck (rather than running into the house, screaming 'unclean'!).

The main thing is: my day-to-day life is paleo/primal. If I make an exception for a special occasion, that is what it must be - special. Haute cuisine, or something of that ilk. Not a can of Pringles washed down by a Pepsi.

Cheating is not something someone plans to do. It might just be semantics, but I'd rather say "I don't normally eat this, but I'm making an exception - just for YOU", then to furtively wipe the Twinkie crumbs off my bathrobe when the missus catches me in the pantry at 3AM.

allyjoy83

I dunno if telling someone that I'm doing something "just for them" is necessarily the best approach. I have a cheat meal to give every week. It just means I have a meal that I don't have to worry about. I haven't seen any real change in my weight based on the use of a cheat, but I did notice feeling like crap after the particularly carb heavy meals. But I have a friend that's a chef and wants me to eat at his restaurant, and friends who want to go out and eat, and I'm not saying no to good food because it's not 100% paleo. I think it always comes down to your purpose for choosing to eat a particular way, and what makes the transition into reaching your goals easier. "Cheat meals" make the transition easier, but most days I don't miss breads/pastas/potatoes, and on occasion, I seek every carb in the house (I have roommates that bring them into the house). We have ups and downs, and allowing ourselves some leeway makes the commitment that much stronger.

@ least that's my 2 cents

CRody44

I try not to plan for failure. If I have a meal or course that is not paleo/primal (the other night at an Italian restaurant, I had veal with a porcini mushroom/prosciutto sauce over pasta, skipped the sourdough bread) so be it, but I don’t preplan a full day of eating crap.

GalaxyDuck

I have a hard time with the whole CONCEPT of 'cheating'. Eating this way is a life choice. One either does it or not. I expect to give it the same dedication I give my wife - and no, I'm not planning to cheat on her, either.

That being said, there ARE times when I decide that a meal might contain foods I have decided not to eat normally. Whether it is a special meal at a special restaurant, or a smidge of birthday cake - I decide to indulge, much the same way that I, as a non-smoker, will accept breathing a few fumes when my daughter has a cigarette on the deck (rather than running into the house, screaming 'unclean'!).

The main thing is: my day-to-day life is paleo/primal. If I make an exception for a special occasion, that is what it must be - special. Haute cuisine, or something of that ilk. Not a can of Pringles washed down by a Pepsi.

Cheating is not something someone plans to do. It might just be semantics, but I'd rather say "I don't normally eat this, but I'm making an exception - just for YOU", then to furtively wipe the Twinkie crumbs off my bathrobe when the missus catches me in the pantry at 3AM.

I'm with you on this one monkeydharma. I don't like the idea of planned cheat days and having one every week seems to just open up the door of making excuses to continue "cheating", for me anyway. I take the approach of a special occasion, which usually means special company who I don't see often (not just going out with a group of my see-you-a-few-times-a-week friends) and I still try to remain grain-free.

I also like the whole9life approach and guide to nutritional off-roading as linked above and I think they did a good job explaining the concept in It Starts with Food.

I do not agree that "cheat meals" make the transition easier, I think they make them A LOT harder. If I had allowed cheats within my first 30 days of eating paleo, I am pretty sure I never would have stuck with it. When you eat gluten, the after-effects can remain in your system for up to 2 weeks. Not to mention the bloating, low energy and sugar cravings that usually come out of it. It totally misses the point of trying to transition to this lifestyle, in my opinion, which is to learn how to make healthier choices. If you've been cheating within your first few weeks, you might not even understand fully understand these effects, because you haven't experienced yet what a month without cheating is like (and more importantly, what the first "cheat" after that month feels like). You need to give your gut time to actually heal, that's sort of the whole point, isn't it?

CWatermelon

I have a hard time with the whole CONCEPT of 'cheating'. Eating this way is a life choice. One either does it or not. I expect to give it the same dedication I give my wife - and no, I'm not planning to cheat on her, either.

That being said, there ARE times when I decide that a meal might contain foods I have decided not to eat normally. Whether it is a special meal at a special restaurant, or a smidge of birthday cake - I decide to indulge, much the same way that I, as a non-smoker, will accept breathing a few fumes when my daughter has a cigarette on the deck (rather than running into the house, screaming 'unclean'!).

The main thing is: my day-to-day life is paleo/primal. If I make an exception for a special occasion, that is what it must be - special. Haute cuisine, or something of that ilk. Not a can of Pringles washed down by a Pepsi.

Cheating is not something someone plans to do. It might just be semantics, but I'd rather say "I don't normally eat this, but I'm making an exception - just for YOU", then to furtively wipe the Twinkie crumbs off my bathrobe when the missus catches me in the pantry at 3AM.

I'm with you on this one monkeydharma. I don't like the idea of planned cheat days and having one every week seems to just open up the door of making excuses to continue "cheating", for me anyway. I take the approach of a special occasion, which usually means special company who I don't see often (not just going out with a group of my see-you-a-few-times-a-week friends) and I still try to remain grain-free.

I also like the whole9life approach and guide to nutritional off-roading as linked above and I think they did a good job explaining the concept in It Starts with Food.

I do not agree that "cheat meals" make the transition easier, I think they make them A LOT harder. If I had allowed cheats within my first 30 days of eating paleo, I am pretty sure I never would have stuck with it. When you eat gluten, the after-effects can remain in your system for up to 2 weeks. Not to mention the bloating, low energy and sugar cravings that usually come out of it. It totally misses the point of trying to transition to this lifestyle, in my opinion, which is to learn how to make healthier choices. If you've been cheating within your first few weeks, you might not even understand fully understand these effects, because you haven't experienced yet what a month without cheating is like (and more importantly, what the first "cheat" after that month feels like). You need to give your gut time to actually heal, that's sort of the whole point, isn't it?

I agree with MonkeyDrama and Macphean! I know I am serious about this lifestyle change because I don't cheat! 47 days in of eating clean and I feel fantastic...better than I did at the height of my fitness in my 20's and 30's. I am day 3 of Whole30 because I hadn't totally given up dairy, but am doing so now. I still have dinner parties and go to events like graduations, birthdays and showers, but just eat something before I go, bring a dish to share if appropriate, and I go to connect with people NOT with food. I have a lot of fat to lose and even though I typically eat about 900-1000 calories a day, I have tons of energy because I am eating the right kinds of food. My energy has actually skyrocketed! I don't want to lose this feeling by cheating.

monkeydharma

I dunno if telling someone that I'm doing something "just for them" is necessarily the best approach.

Yeah, I didn't make the context of that clear. What I was thinking was: my daughter, who believes cooking is of the devil, told me she was going to make me some fancy cake for my upcoming birthday party. Basic conundrum: do I tell her no thanks, since I don't eat cake, or encourage what is obviously a big gift (her actually making food for the foodie)? That was when I made the comment. I told her "I will have a small piece - just for you - but you understand that you'll have to take whatever's left after the party home with you because it won't get eaten here." She laughed and said sure, she understood.

In other social functions, I do what someone else mentioned: either eat in advance, bring a dish when appropriate, of pick and choose and eat when I get home.

AmIhealthyyet

I try not to plan for failure. ..I don’t preplan a full day of eating crap.

Love this comment and I agree with this,. if I plan, I spend large amounts of time just thinking about food.like a druggie waiting for the next fix!