Allowing yourself a treat or to cheat.
We have often hear people refer to cheat day or meal when talking about dieting… my personal believe is it can be very beneficial. It is always great when we are looking forward to an outing, vacations, trip …well when you are focussing on your nutrition with the efforts to lose weight having something to look forward to is really helpful. Now when I say cheat I don’t mean you can go hog-wild all w/e long. In the past my husband, Bruce would be very weight conscious all week-long and then cut lose on the w/e. Well he started to notice he would be making some great changes and then he had to start over on Monday. And really that sort of defeated the purpose cause the weight loss becomes very slow or just not making any progress…which cause him to be unmotivated. I believe that you should reward yourself by having a meal out at your favorite restaurant or something that would generally not have on your nutrition plan like pizza, a burger and fries or desert. Allowing this pre-planned treat can really make a difference with your commitment to your nutritional plan. Why?
Keep you motivated Rewarding yourself for consistency, progress, and keeps you on track. It makes it easier to continue to make healthy choice that support your weight loss plan knowing that you will allow yourself either more calories, a special items, an evening out. Many people who are dieting can get bored as they lack creativity in meal prep and eat the same type meals day in day out while dieting. So by allowing yourself something special because you have done so well all week is really good psychologically.
Help prevent bingeing If you are constantly watching what you eat, some people get to the point where they start to feel they are always deprived…and we have all been there when all of a sudden we snap. Eat stuff that we don’t generally allow and then just keep going cake, deserts, poutine, chips, pizza… by pre-planning and allowing yourself to cheat once a week give you feeling of control while satisfying your desire for that indulgence but still keeping it in perspective.
Help prevent plateaus and can boost your metabolism The body get use to the same exercise, the same food, the same # of calories in a day. The cheat meal can really shake things up helping you prevent a plateau. (when everything just stops). So just like we switch up our workout, or types of exercise we should also shake up our nutritional intake. It can also replenish the glycogen stores giving you more energy to push harder into your next week.
Remember this is a treat to supplement your daily nutrition not a pass to gorge yourself at an all you can buffet. If you really want weight loss (I guessing you are starting to see a trend with my recommendations)…you need to plan your meals, your workouts and even your treats.
Giselle Bergeron-Raganold
613-596-3183
Ellefitness 
Loved this! And this is why I look at it as my weekly treat rather than cheat. I feel like the word “treat” implies a temporary deviation in which is not the norm and life will continue on after. I feel like allowing myself a “cheat” means I am totally off plan, which usually entails trying to jump back on, which takes a lot more motivation then just treating yourself. May all be just mental, but whatever works! 🙂