I always pride myself on having a balance in life where I can enjoy food that I love and also stick to a healthy eating plan to help keep myself in shape. One way to help you stay on course of your nutritional plan is to have a scheduled ‘cheat day’ or ‘cheat meal’ where you allow yourself to stray from your daily nutritional diet. Basically, a cheat meal is eating whatever you desire.
Believe it or not, this is actually a great way to help you stick to a healthy, regulated, nutritional plan. It allows you some leeway to have some of the food you have been craving, and also gives your will power a mental break.
Psychologically, having a scheduled cheat meal or day may help you deal with the restricting feeling you may have when following a healthy eating plan.
By looking forward to indulging in your favourite foods you make the task of sticking to your diet for the rest of the time easier. Completely restricting yourself of all food cravings you have, you tend to mentally get frustrated at not being able to enjoy food and eventually stray from your regular healthy eating pattern.
While this is your time to enjoy food, avoid over-indulging and eating huge amounts of calories and junk to the point where you feel sick. Think of your body as an engine – every now and again pushing it a little can be good to clean out the cobwebs. Pushing it too often, however, will lead to loss of performance. In the case of your body, this means putting on fat and not muscle.
Cheat Days and Meals
