Are Cheat Days Good For Your Diet?
This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month. Since it takes 21-30 days to develop a new habit, making a goal for the month ahead is an effective strategy.
The buddy system is one of the main ways to get motivated. I’ve always found that if I say out loud to someone what I plan on doing, I’m more likely to do it. Because if I say I will, I feel responsible to follow through.
Age doesn’t matter. It’s never too late. You can always make progress and actually reverse the signs of aging!
Last month, Chris wanted to try adding one cheat day a week to his diet to see if it made it easier for him to stick with his good diet habits the rest of the time. I thought it sounded like a good idea, so I made the same goal for the month of March. Here’s what happened:
Half the month was over, and we both forgot what our goal had been. Lol! It was a busy month, but maybe we forgot because it was such a non-goal. It was more like “Relax, don’t worry about it” rather than “Must stick with new health goal!”
My Experience
When I remembered what our goal was, I realized that I didn’t need cheat days. As I’ve said before, I really like My Fitness Pal app because it counts calories for me and it warns me when sugar, fat or carbs are going to be over my goal amount (which it sets for me.) So I have been eating whatever I like, as long as it fits into my calorie/fat/sugar/carbohydrate allotments. I don’t ever feel deprived, I pretty much stay within my limits and I don’t feel a need to splurge. I must admit I do have good willpower, though.
I am terrible about drinking enough water, so my goal for next month is to drink more water…more than the one or two glasses a day that I now consume. 😀
Chris’s Experience
In February, Chris had one cheat day at the end of a strict diet and exercise regimen for the filming of his role in the movie “You Say Hello.” He really enjoyed a day of relaxing and eating whatever he wanted after over a month of following a low-calorie, low-sugar, low-carb diet. So he liked the idea of having one cheat day a week to see if it would help him stick to healthy eating.
At the end of the month, he said sadly, “It seems like every day was a cheat day.” We figured out it was a matter of time, because he has been so busy. When he’s on the run, it’s very hard to find healthy food. It seems that fast food is junk food. If you want to eat healthy food, you kind of have to sit down with it.
So Chris went from a month and a half of extremely strict dieting to almost a month of fast food encounters. And all this was after a year or so of developing a healthy lifestyle. Now he needs to get his balance back…So he’s thinking about trying to keep the cheat days down to once a week this month.
What Chris and I are trying to do on our own with each other for support is to change our lifestyle through building one healthy habit at a time. That has been working out pretty well. It’s gradual and doable and it usually sticks. A spartan diet made Chris want to treat himself, and then being surrounded by junk food made him feel bad. A healthy balance is the overall goal.
Wendy Hodge of “Wendy’s Way to Health” objected to the term “cheat days” that many personal trainers tend to use. She has a program on her website to help you create a healthy diet for yourself one step at a time, naturally, as a lifestyle change.
In an article “When Is It Okay to Cheat? The Pros and Cons of Cheat Meals” by Erin Palinski-Wade, RD, CDE, LDN, the author says:
“Just the word ‘cheat’ conjures up the negative idea you’re doing something wrong or that you should feel guilty for your choice, and that can be a slippery slope. ‘It’s like opening a door to permission to eat foods you crave but with such a narrow window of opportunity that the urge to get as much in as you can is very high,’ says Rebecca Scritchfield, RDN, author of the book Body Kindness.
“As a result, cheat foods might be consumed hurriedly — without time to really savor the food. After a cheat meal or day, it’s normal to feel shame or guilt, negatively impacting future food choices…
“However, since healthy eating is about balance, no food should ever be off limits. Allowing yourself to indulge in favorite foods helps prevent boredom and deprivation, which can spark cravings and a desire to binge. No matter what your health goals are, incorporating indulgences is the key to maintaining balance.
“To indulge without hurting your health and weight-loss goals, shift your mindset from negative to positive. “Stop calling it ‘cheating’ and call it a flex meal. Not every meal has to be ‘nutrition first,’” points out Scritchfield. For this reason it’s important to allow yourself permission to eat all of the foods you love — and having a strategy is fundamental. Planning out your indulgence by portioning them in advance is a tip Tammy Lakatos Shames, RDN, and Lyssie Lakatos, RDN, authors of “The Nutrition Twins’ Veggie Cure” and co-founders of 21-Day Body Reboot suggest. This approach allows you to indulge without completely straying from your goals.“
Next month, Chris’s goal is to try to find healthy foods most days and only allow junk food one day a week. My goal is to drink more water.
What do you think of cheat days? Do you think it’s a bad concept, or do you allow yourself a day now and then to detour from healthy choices? Let us know your way of handling indulgent foods!
You might also like to read other entries from this health diary. You can see them in my category: Health Goal Diary.
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