As you live a healthy and active life, you will realize that your diet will mainly revolve around high-fiber veggies, unrefined carbs, and lean protein. This is not a bad thing, especially that it helps you maintain an ideal weight. However, you need to confront the fact that you can only live on lettuce and vegan meat for so long. Sooner or later, your cravings will tap you.
And when that happens, you should not feel bad. Understandably, you are doing your best to maintain a streak for the consistency of your healthy diet. But if you take a cheat day, you will be able to prevent yourself from disliking your healthy diet. This is because you are somewhat breaking the monotony.
Don’t stress out or satisfy your unwarranted need to phone a telehealth service once you’ve broken your diet. You deserve some cheat days. Thankfully, there are some ways to make sure that you can make it optimal.
Pick a meal
Some have this notion that cheat day is a day where you feast on everything unhealthy. If this has been your belief, you might feel bad after enjoying that day because you’ve been eating unhealthy dishes the whole day. This is just fine, but if it bothers you so much, it’s worth considering to pick a specific meal of the day.
Focus on a specific time of the day. For instance, you can pick your afternoon snack when you can eat a double cheeseburger. Or, in case you have a Friday night date, pick that slot so you will not need to restrain yourself when you’re at the restaurant.
Plan your schedule
The schedule of your cheat day within the weeks should also be considered. When you are already comfortable with your cheat days, you end up cheating on your diet every day, which is not good. It’s called cheat day (without an “s”), so pick just one day when you can eat whatever you want. But if this is too much for you, some experts recommend breaking down your cheat day into smaller or micro cheats scattered throughout the week. For one, you can eat a small sinful snack every day.
Avoid processed food
While you can certainly allow yourself to eat at McDonald’s or get a milkshake at Dairy Queen, you might want to stick to your overall health theme, which is to eat healthily. This means that you might want to avoid processed food from time to time. Should you crave a hamburger, just do things yourself. You can always buy a sirloin steak, ground it yourself, and fry it in healthy oil.
Slow down
Just because it’s cheating does not mean that you will eat everything at once – this will only keep you from enjoying your food. Remember, the purpose of a cheat day is to allow you to relish some of life’s greatest things. If you’ve been cheating on your diet through a buffet, you should think about things twice.
Drink water
Sometimes hunger and lack of bodily fluids might feel the same thing. So during your cheat days, make sure that a strict water regimen is in place. Drinking water can make you full, thus curbing your cravings. Not only that, but water also helps you digest food.
Own your cheat day
With all that said, remember that your cheat day should be something you’re happy about. It should be something that will make you appreciate some of life’s greatest feats through food. Decide on what you want to eat, and make sure that this can be found at the caterer’s table.
