Why Cheat Meals Are The Key To Staying On-track

Do you have a weekly cheat meal? Here's why you should be and why having a cheat meal can sky-rocket your motivation and consistency

What Is A Cheat Meal?

A cheat meal is one-two meals a week where you can eat whatever you like

It's a meal where you forget about your nutrition plan and you just eat foods you love.

Completely guilt free

How Can A Cheat Meal Help You Stay On-track?

A cheat meal is a valuable tool to staying consistent to your diet and remaining motivated all year round

It helps keep you on track with your diet and allows you to still eat foods you love that don't fit into a healthy routine

What I'd recommend doing is picking 1-2 cheat meal slots a week (depending how strict you want to be on yourself) and writing them in your diary or Google calendar

A common layout would be Wednesday and Saturday night, as this breaks up the week nicely

But do what you like, I used to have a client who played Bridge and ate cake with her friends on a Friday morning, so that was her slot

It's completely up to you and your schedule

Why This Works So Well

Okay, so imagine you've planned your cheat meal on a Wednesday night and you and your partner are going out for a nice meal

It's Tuesday after work and you've popped into see a friend. You're both chatting away, drinking tea and she slips off to the kitchen to grab the biscuit barrel

Biscuits are the best right. You want a biscuit

But you've only got 2 cheat meals a week

So what are you options? 1. You can eat the biscuits and forfeit your cheat meal with your partner or 2. You politely decline the choccy biccys and enjoy your meal out guilt free

Either of those outcomes are fine, because you still stuck to the rules

By setting cheat meals you're far more likely to stay consistent to your diet, plus you're teaching yourself to be disciplined

Which is a life lesson that goes a lot further than your diet

I also want to teach you a really quick hack that will help with this

When someones offers you biscuits, chocolate, wine or whatever it may be

Don't say "no, I can't have that"

Instead say "no I don't want that"

When you say you can't have something you're referring to your healthy diet negatively

When you say you don't want something you're mentally toughening yourself up

Every single time you turn down crappy food you're becoming more disciplined and mentally stronger

Don't believe me? Try it. I promise you'll experience a wave of accomplishment and pride

The Rules

So I'm afraid there are a couple rules

Unfortunately this cheat meal isn't an excuse to eat everything in site

A family sized pizza and a Ben & Jerry's would set you back weeks

Rule 1: Your cheat meal must equal 500-700 calories

I can almost hear you reading this going "owww" but the problem is if you've been eating really well for a week and you completely pig-out you won't get anywhere

You'll swiftly undo all that hard work in one meal. Then when you hop on the scales next you'll be pissed that the diet plan "isn't working"

Rule 2: Your cheat meal can't be an extra meal

For example you can't have breakfast, lunch and dinner and then decide to have ice cream and brownies

Your cheat meal must be one of your three daily meals

This just ensures that you're sticking to your daily calorie intake

Conclusion

Cheat meals are a great way to stay consistent and not completely banish the foods you love

They're also great for keeping a tab on the junk food you're eating. Now there are no longer a few biscuits here and there

Finally cheat meals are great for giving yourself something to look forward to

When you get cravings you can hold tight knowing that the next day you can have your favorite meal, a glass of wine, or whatever it may be

So grab your diary and add in your cheat meals!

Comment below if you have any questions

Ben