Do You Have a Cheat Day?

Great topic; great post! I prefer to think of it as ’splurging’ rather than ‘cheating’. (Semantics are your friends.) I have splurge parameters, if you will, to help with the whole control issue. A once-a-week splurge is a meal with beef and/or white flour (a small cheeseburger, a small serving of steak and baked potato, spaghetti, a burrito, etc.) , but only if I can fit it into my calorie count for the day. Once a month, I have a splurge that doesn’t have to fit into my calorie count. And then there’s Cake Day, which occurs every 2500 minutes of exercise. Cake Day, as you might guess, is when I can have a full-fledged dessert. All to myself. No sharing. Ever.

Splurging is good for the soul, if it’s within reason. It’s gotten me through the past year and 85 pounds gone. I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it without the occasional splurge.

I used to have a cheat day where I went crazy but I realised that this does not work for me.

Now I eat whatever I want on weekends but in moderation.

I exercise to maintain balance. One one side, I exercise. On the other side, I eat.

In all seriousness, though, we can get a bit hung up on our diet. I tend to stick to quality - that includes fresh veg, fruit and fish, but it also includes cheese, red meat and chocolate.

I’m not in perfect shape, but I’m pretty happy with where I am right now, knowing that I enjoy my food and my fitness.

Do I have a cheat day? Heck yes!! And pizza is one of my favorite options! Actually to be honest, I have cheat meals instead of cheat days… I give myself 2-3 cheat meals a day. Some weeks I use them all up, and other weeks I manage to stay pretty ‘clean’ the whole week.

The more you eat healthy the more you actually prefer healthy food, I’m sure most readers will agree with that? Be that as it may I’m a sucker for pizza, pancakes, cheesecake, chocolate, ice cream… okay I still like unhealthy food!

PLANNED cheat days definitely have their psychological benefits - especially if it prevents you having an unplanned cheat day. Unfortunately my cheat days (and others) are sometimes the kind that are “spontaneous”.

I do the cheat meal thing too as I just felt too CRAPPY after a cheat day

too lethargic to GET BACK TO IT the next morning.

M.

I was surprised at the title of the post as I thought most people might be considering a cheat meal not a whole cheat day!! For me if I am losing weight as I am then a cheat meal/day does not work for me as it soon turns into a cheat weekend, cheat week, cheat months etc… My body can’t handle pizza anyway but icecream is a different story. But if there is no possibility of tempation then I won’t stray so best policy for me is no cheating.

Like many of the people here I do the cheat meals also. I eat healthy when I can and find that preparing food in advance really is the key here. However, there are some days when you really do just not have the time to cook something healthy up. On these days I use my cheat meal and have a pizza, burger, chips etc.

By doing it this way I find that I don’t end up getting into a cycle of eating lots of junk food. Plus, it means I only eat junk food when I need a quick meal and don’t give in to my cravings.

I have had many cheat days in my time. It used to be Friday or Saturday night. When I was at college, I would train hard and eat right all week long. Then on the weekend I would tend to hang out by myself or with just a few close friends in the dorms or apartments, and we would eat typical college food: pizza, rice krispie treats, garbage plates, and hot wings. Good times.

Cheat days motivate me to work out even more! If I consume pizza or any other junk food one weekend I’ll feel the need to get in a great workout that following monday. It’s okay to cheat every once in a while with moderation– as long as you’re not consuming sugar, it will really throw off your diet. Healthy snacking throughout the day will really help keep your metabolism going and drinking plenty of water the day after cheating will keep you on top of your game.

Having a cheating day is important like you said but many make the same mis take and eat way too much of the wrong stuff having all your hard work during the week be for nothing. Pizza is really good and that is what I have on my cheat day or maybe sometimes I will go out for frozen yogurt (I know people tell me that is no cheating but I am a health nut). Instead of eating 4 to 6 pieces of pizza, try only eat 2 to 3 at the most as it is filling if you relax for awhile after the meal. Cheat smart everyone.

2 to 3 pieces is not enough for me… to be honest I could eat 2 entire pizzas in one sitting! Of course I realize that’s not going to help my cause so I only really eat that bad once in a blue moon.

Nice post topic! Thanks, Matthew.

Cheat days are necessary for me. So important, in fact, that I’ve managed to come up with a trick so I can cheat more often and not feel at all guilty.

So far, I’ve found 2 super healthy dessert recipes that actually taste good.

The black bean brownie tastes even better than the real thing and the pureed prunes make it super moist. The chocolate pudding is almost like the real stuff, simply made of pureed prunes and figs, cocoa powder, and rice/soy milk.

Anyone up for dessert every day and not have to worry about putting on the poundage?

There’s got to be other recipes out there like these!

Many individuals try to be too perfect when dieting. You can get away with eating some things that are considered bad. The key is to make sure you have a good overall plan. If you eat the fried food for lunch balance it with a healthy dinner.

Yeah your body can take junk if it’s mostly fed quality healthy food. If you’re eating junk more often though, your body won’t be able to handle it and that’s where the adverse side effects come into play like stubborn fat.

I never cheat… I’m afraid I’ll get back into my old terrible eating habits. The closest thing I get to cheating is more peanut butter than usual lol.

We usually have one cheat day every two weeks where one person chooses which take away we have - works quite well and then you don’t have the same thing all the time on your cheat day. My cheat day would include Thai food.

I have about 3 cheat days when I hit a plateau. Once I get back into the diet after those cheat days, I start losing weight again. On my cheat days I only eat when I’m really hungry.