Should I Have Food Cheat Days?
No.I believe you should not have cheat days, and what I mean is, the whole day should not be a splurge.
Why? Well, three or so meals of cheat food can be quite a lot of calories for one day (not to mention the other bad health effects). It can amount to a huge setback, and unless you swim six hours a day like Michael Phelps, it could be the reason your results have stalled.
If you would like some cheat meals on a day, I recommend only one or two meals to “cheat.” Like, if you were in a hurry to get to work one Friday, perhaps you could let yourself stop for that sausage, egg and cheese biscuit, and you could still go out for lunch with your friends for Friday fried fish. But get right back on it after that. I believe that if you go beyond that, you risk totally losing your footing and reverting all the way back to your old bad food habits.
I saw it mentioned somewhere that if you want to be healthy, you should eat right and exercise at least 80% of the time, and the 20% might not matter so much. Considering that we eat on average 21 meals a week (3 a day), that 20% amounts to about 4 meals a week you could cheat with. I feel like that might be pushing it, but the main point is, if you are truly eating right 80% of the time, those cheat meals should not hurt so much.
So to recap:
- Cheat Days? No, cheat meals
- How many Cheat Meals? No more than two in one day, and no more than four in one week
- Oh, another tidbit… You do not have to go all the way with a cheat meal, hint hint. Yeah, get the burger, but get a salad and water instead of fries and a drink. Sure, have the fried chicken, but you do not need a plate full of it, and you can do all vegetable sides.
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