Do you wait for the weekend, dreaming about the pizza, or the ice cream, or the burger you’ll gorge yourself on?
This might seem like a normal way to think- if you are ‘good’ all week, then you deserve to enjoy yourself over the weekend… right?
Here’s my problem with cheat meals… it creates this belief that foods you associate with comfort, happiness and fun are NOT aligned with your health and fitness goals.
I’ll tell you why this doesn’t work- you are continuously telling your body to shut up, because your mind is telling you what you can and can’t have. When you’re on a diet, you stop listening to your body’s hunger signals, you deny your cravings, and you refuse to eat food that doesn’t fit into your diet.
You start thinking more and more about everything you’re not supposed to eat on your diet. The only solution seems like including a cheat meal… but each time you do, you feel stuffed, uncomfortable and bloated. You don’t even really ENJOY the meal. On Monday, you decide you’ll be ‘good’ all week- and it starts all over again.
But it’s NOT a long term solution. So how do you get out of the cheat meal mentality?
- Make your meals more fun! Try cooking with new spices, add a bit of cheese or butter to your veggies, or set yourself a goal of trying a new recipe each week.
- Start eating more mindfully, and paying attention to what you ACTUALLY like. Your body will give you signs that tell you what it likes, and it may or may not be the diet you’re currently on.
- Plan for treats throughout the week. This is a step towards being a bit more flexible- I know that going from a strict ‘cheat’ mindset to being able to eat a pizza on a Tuesday and not feel guilty can be hard- so start planning in other treats, and check in with yourself before having them to see if this is something you truly want, or if you’re eating it just because it’s ‘on the schedule’.
Giving yourself a bit more flexibility during the week can help you stop feeling like you need to overdo it on the weekends.
Not sure how to get started? Join my weekly group coaching calls, where I share with you the real talk about eating well, mindful weight loss, and a healthy mindset. Click here to join the next group call!
