Have You a Cheated On Your Diet This Week?

Have you been a naughty boy/girl this week and cheated on your beloved...diet?

Well, if you have then I have just one thing to say to you - congrats, you are only human! In fact these types of meals are actually, on occasion good for you, and they are what people in the weight loss industry term 'Cheat Meals'.

So what are cheat meals exactly?

A cheat meal is a meal that you have only once a week, that doesn’t conform to your regular weight loss diet and lets you eat whatever you want! Yip you read that correctly, a meal that where you are able to 'cheat' on your current diet regulations. A cheat meal can include anything that your heart desires, like your favourite saucy burger, cheesy pizza or even a big bag of potato chips!

There’s only one catch to a cheat meal. You can only have it once a week, not two or three times, only once! And, if for some reason you miss out on a meal that was supposed to be a healthy meal, like you were running late for a business meeting and had to pick up take outs, that meal has to count as your cheat meal for the week. This is a really important point I would like to make otherwise you could fall into the trap of eating too many unhealthy meals, which isn’t really dieting. (I believe the term is called 'pigging out' ;) )

Here are 2 reasons why you want to have a weekly cheat meal:

Reason 1

A cheat meat is supposed to be a type of reward to you for sticking to your dieting regime for the week. Now the problem with dieting, as I’m sure you have figured out by now, is that it is not always the most fun thing in the world to do! So, if we keep punishing ourselves day in and day out, how long do you think we will stick to our diets? Well, not very long! Which defeats the point of dieting in the first place?

Reason 2

If your reading this, then I’m pretty sure just like me, you like your carbs! And there’s nothing wrong with that either, after all, everything in moderation is good for you. You see, the moment we cut carbs completely out of our lives is the moment our bodies say, "Wait a minute! Something is wrong here!" and automatically goes into 'survival mode' where it actually starts storing body fat instead of burning it! So when you have your weekly cheat meal you are in essence just letting your body know that there is nothing to fear and it can continue to burn fat.

So why should have a cheat meal?

Simply because it helps you to enjoy the process of getting to your ideal weight, and reduces some of the pain along the way! Just remember this, a cheat meal should only ever be used a reward for sticking to your diet goals for the entire week. (Weekends included!) Also another really important point to touch on is that you should plan your cheat meal into weekly schedule, just like the rest of your dieting meals, but that is a subject for an entirely different article.

Till next time!