Cheat Meals

I'm sure by now you've heard that diet is the most important part of fitness.  I've heard it's like 80% of the work, meaning it arguably has more impact on your physique and fitness level than what you do in the gym.

Even though we all know this, it's basically impossible (or at least hella uncomfortable) to stick to a diet 100% of the time.  Nutritionists say treating yourself to you favoritest junk foods every now and then is actually psychologically good and can help you lose weight by keeping you from binge eating.  I remember those days when I just haaad to have sugar...I'd been turning it down for days 'n' days 'n' days...then all of a sudden I found myself eating my body weight in candy bars.  Satisfyingly horrible.

My Cheat Days

Since those days I've been working on managing my cravings for all things healthy & d'licious.  Life is too short to be depriving yourself of what I refer to as "mental health food".  I have 1.5 cheat days (before you judge, let me explain):  Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday is when I live like a wild child run my errands, so I don't really have the time/ability to eat healthy, structured meals like I do during the week.  Not all the means I eat are bad, but I'm sure my portions are out of wack, so it's just the same.  Sunday is fishing day with pops.  There isn't even a decent bathroom available, let alone healthy food.  I count this as the 0.5 because I don't eat a lot that day...usually a small snack and a bunch of water.  Then a healthy dinner.  So it's not all bad, I hope.  I also make pancakes for breakfast on the weekend...not sure how healthy or unhealthy they are, but I figured I'd mention them just in case.

The only major cheating I do during the week is pizza day with kid sister on Thursdays.  I gets my pizza ON, like for real for real...pepperoni, heck, sometimes extra pepperoni, stuffed crust...I tasks no prisoners.  Mind you, this is dinner...the rest of the day is quality eating.  Kid sister is planning on going back to school in August so those will likely stop once she's gone.

So my cheat day are as follows:

• Weekend pancakes
• Saturdays
• Partial Sundays
• Pizza Thursday

It doesn't seem like that to me, but now I feel horrible after writing it down for y'all.  Thanks.

Cheat Days vs. Cheat Meals

So I've been trying to get my lean muscle on, and I happened upon this video from Funky Roberts, aka burpee man.  He makes some good points about the mental importance of cheat meals and why it's good to have them planned.  I like that he turns his cheat "days" into cheat "meals", which I think is a good way of doing things...it's sure to keep you from going overboard with the fatty eating.  If I were to do this, weekly pizza bonding day with kid sister would be out, fisherman Sunday with pops would have to included some kinda portable healthy snack, and Saturdays...I don't even know about that life.

My only issue with his cheat method is that it only includes 3 meals, not days...meals.  Think about that for a sec...

I eat 5 small meals a day, 5 days a week.  That's approximately 25 meals in 5 days.  Saturdays it's probably around 4 and Sunday it's probably 3.  Let's do some math, shall we?

• 25 healthy meals a week x 4 weeks in a month = 100 healthy meals
• 4 bad Saturday meals x 4 weeks in a month = 16 
• 3 mediocre Sunday meals x 4 weeks in a month = 12 
• Totals meals eaten = approx. 128

Let's just say 130 meals for the sake of rounding.  Now, you mean to tell me out of 130 meals in a month, only 3 can be faulty?  3/130.  I'd give you the percentage, but I don't do that much math.  But that's a hella small percentage, especially for a foodie like me.  An average person could go through their monthly allotment of cheat meals in the course of a single weekend. That doesn't mean you're sabotaging your diet, it just means you're living like a normal person.  In theory, this is where I tell you I'm going to try it out and report back to y'all, but I ain't even gonna kid myself into thinking I'd be able to do something like that.  I need to live my life.  That plus the fact I'm moderately addicted to food and couldn't stop eating even if I wanted to.

Good Luck with That

But if anyone is able to torture themselves do this for a month, do let me know.  Or maybe you already do, in which case, bless yo' heart and yo' days.