To Cheat or Not to Cheat, That is the Question!
I’ve been reading that many people plan a cheat meal or even a cheat day into their weekly diet as a way of rewarding themselves for having followed their diet all week. They say it is something to look forward to, and makes a big difference to their motivation. Many recommend that everyone would benefit by doing this.
I agree that it is probably a positive thing for many, but I think it would be a disaster for me and all those like me who have had a struggle to control emotional eating and binge eating. At this point in my life, to plan a cheat meal would be like planning to fail.
I lived most of my adult life on the diet merry-go-round: diet strictly, lose a little, cheat, feel like a failure, give up, eat for comfort, and gain back all the weight I lost and a little more. Then the vicious cycle would start again.
I’ve come a long way since those frustrating times, and I’m afraid to risk all of the progress I’ve made by cheating. Would one cheat meal a week turn into two? Would one day a week turn into a little cheating everyday? Would the old saying "one is one too many, and a thousand is not enough", apply to me and eating? Food had a powerful hold on me for most of my life, and I just can’t risk letting it get any kind of foothold again. So, I’ll continue to make clean and healthy food choices, and NO CHEATING FOR ME!
January 29, 2008 at 7:12 am
Personally, I’m trying to find a middle ground. When I worked with a personal trainer years ago, I was very religious about it. Then, when I did slip (or cheat), it was like the wheels fell off. Not so much because of what I ate, but the fact that I was frustrating the process.
So then I read Body For Life. A Cheat Day? A whole day? Damn, I’m down with that. Then it became a matter of just how much crap I could eat in that one day. Like a pig in a trough.
Now, I don’t think about cheating. I don’t think about being religious about a diet. I just try to eat clean. Avoiding temptation is a big thing for me right now, but I’m getting a handle on it.
Had a big ol’ bowl of popcorn Saturday after dinner. The real stuff, not the microwave junk. Pure comfort action on my part. I felt like complete crap the entire next day ….. Hmmm, I wonder why. And I really didn’t enjoy the popcorn all that much ….