Are Cheat Days Needed? My Take On It!

Last week I met a woman, who is a follower of my website. She wanted to talk a little more about her nutrition! I am always interested in the way people eat at that particular moment and mainly why they eat the way they do! As I’ve mentioned before, most difficulties people have when it comes to healthy eating, come from the connection between food and emotions ( that is especially true for women)!

And after all, a big part of our conversation, was granted for cheat days or in other words the days, when you are ALLOWED to eat whatever you want and give your taste buds and your mind some pleasure. Or at least that is the way people understand it!

As always I have a different point of view, so I decided to suggest it to you!

When I started eating healthier, I didn’t have my own opinion on the topic, so I observed what other people did and I then applied it to my own nutrition.

Of course, I started with a really strict nutrition plan during the week and then I had one cheat day, when I was allowed to eat everything! I insist on telling you, that a big part of my problems with eating, that I had for the next couple years, were mainly due to this way of eating!

Back then I ate healthy just with the goal to lose weight and look good. Health wasn’t something I cared about and nothing had the power to convince me, that I could turn healthy eating into a lifestyle and not a torture and deprivation!

Monday through Sunday, I strictly measured every gram of food, I prepared my healthy meals and I was eagerly anticipating the end of the week. The day, when I was allowed to eat as much as I want, from everything I deprived from all week!

This was really hard mentally and besides that it make me feel bad physically, because after a cheat day, I felt TERRIBLE! I always had that feeling of being bloated, tired and sluggish… I can’t even think of a word, which could describe exactly how bad I felt!

And thus, I was constantly in an enchanted circle, following a strict diet and then binging on Sunday. It was really hard mentally! Most of my thoughts were about food. I was constantly making plans, what I was gonna eat. And if I failed during the week, eating a biscuit or two… everything was a waste of time. It was the end of the world!

Later on, I decided to get rid of cheat days, so I started doing them just twice a month, then once a month…

Slowly but surely I was realizing that the less I eat junk food, the better I feel and the more I find healthy food to be tasty!

After a lot of tries and mistakes, I got to the point where I started looking on food the way I look today. Today I know the difference between healthy and unhealthy food. I know how I feel when I eat real food and how bad I feel when I eat junk. I know how healthy food brings positives for my body and my mind, and how junk food has a negative influence!

I understood that every kind of control, even over food is something that sooner or later takes control over you and becomes your main fuel of life, which is really destructive!

Today the only thing I am trying to do is to ALWAYS eat healthy and quality food. It doesn’t matter if today I eat one steak more than I am supposed to, or a handful more of nuts. I realized that even if I eat a little more than I need, as long as the food is real, quality, healthy food, this won’t ruin my body composition!

I found out that when you make healthy eating a lifestyle and not a mean to lose weight, everything gets so much easier and you don’t need to use your will or pay tremendous efforts!

I stopped using food, as an occasion to celebrate and I got rid of the need to eat cakes, ice cream, pancakes in order to make me feel better!

The healthier I eat, the more I find out, that nature has given us delicious, real food. There is such a variety of fruits, which are a lot tastier than any junk food! And the good thing is that fruits don’t make your body suffer, the way that junk food does!

I learned how to prepare myself delicious desserts, but with real, healthy products, which satisfy my tasty buds, but as I already said don’t harm my body!

That’s why today my mind is free of the constant thoughts about food. I don’t eagerly wait for Sunday anymore, because today I don’t make days to be an occasion for feasts!

From my experience with diets, I will tell you that cheat days aren’t something that will be in your favor! They are harder to handle mentally, than they help you! They want help you make healthy eating a lifestyle, but they will just make you a slave to never ending, torturous, depriving diets!

My advice is to focus on eating just real, healthy food! There are a bunch of websites with healthy recipes! And you can’t imagine the great desserts you could prepare with some raw nuts, dates, cocoa and some other fruits! You could check the Recipes on my website or visit some other websites!

What’s your opinion? Do you have cheat days? How do they work for you?

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