Eat ice cream and pizza without "cheating" on your diet

MAKE THE “CHEAT DAYS” AND THE “CHEAT MEALS” STOP. PLEASE.

I’m so tired of seeing people justify eating a burger, pizza, ice cream, etc. whatever as a cheat meal. If you’re not guilty of this, I salute you. If you are, I understand. I’ve been there and want to help you remove this mindset.

Would you have “cheat days” in a relationship? I’d like to guess probably not. If you wanted to cheat, you shouldn’t be in a relationship that limits you from doing as, or who you please.

Now why would anyone set up their relationship with food in such a way that eating ice cream implies that you’ve cheated your “diet”? I’m really not sure. I love ice cream and allow myself to have it regularly. Whether I’m cutting, gaining, or maintaining; it doesn’t matter, I can still fit it in.

Why is this important? If I were to restrict myself from having ice cream and did not fit it into my daily intake as often as I do, I would personally lose control and probably eat an entire tub of ice cream the next time it presents itself in front of me. It’s the same for everybody else with whatever food they love as much as I love ice cream. The more someone restricts a certain “bad” food or foods, the more likely they are to binge on those foods down the line when they do slip up and “cheat”.

So what’s actually wrong with a “cheat meal” or “cheat day” if I’m saying that you can still eat pizza and ice cream? The application of a “cheat” implies that you are doing something wrong, when you’re simply just being a human being. If you allow yourself to incorporate the foods you love into a well-balanced diet, you won’t feel like you are restricted at all and there won’t be the need to cheat. Again, the difference is in the application. When you “cheat” you probably don’t know how much you’re consuming and don’t care either. With this application, you end up putting your intake way over what it should be for the week, thus reversing your hard earned progress. On the other hand, when you allow yourself to fit in ice cream or whatever it may be here and there while still hitting your targets, no damage is done and progress is still made.

So now what?

First off, we need to eliminate the term of being “on a diet” because this implies you can be on it or off it. When you’re on it, your all in and super duper healthy, right? But what happens when you fall off? Do you go back to your old habits and gain all of the weight you lost, plus some extra? Eliminate this all or nothing, black and white, good or bad, attitude. You can still reach your goals eating a diet that includes the foods you enjoy.

How?

Everything we eat is composed of macronutrients AKA macros. The three macronutrients are: protein, carbs, and fat. Protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram while fat has 9 calories per gram.

Now let’s say I eat a hugeeee salad with lots of ~healthy~ toppings (sweet potatoes, cranberries, walnuts, feta cheese, olive oil & vinegar dressing, and grilled chicken). I’m going to pretend this salad has 33g protein, 50g carbs, 25g fat.

Here’s the math: 33 x 4= 132 50 x 4= 200 25 x 9= + 225 557 calories

So what if I took off the sweet potatoes and used a zero calorie dressing instead of the olive oil? This would remove about 22g carbs, 2 g protein and 10g fat. There you have an ice cream bar 🙂

OR take away the whole salad for one meal, one day out of the week. Make sure to get your micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and adequate protein from the rest of your daily intake, and insert pizza. If 1 cheese slice is roughly 34g carbs, 12g protein, 10g fat, and 275 calories– you can still fit in a small salad with some lean protein & your pizza to add up to the original salad’s totals. Magic!

It’s a lot simpler than they want you to believe.

My general rule of thumb is to avoid having more than 1 let’s call them “treat” meals, for lack of a better word, in a row (even though sometimes it obviously happens, because life, and that’s okay).

Always get back to eating a diet composed mainly of whole foods (fruits, vegetables, lean protein, whole grains) before you go and fit in another pizza, burger, or ice cream bar.

I hope you learned something from this. If you have any questions or would like help in regards to your nutrition. Shoot me an e-mail.

Have an awesome weekend! DON’T “CHEAT”! But fit in some treats 🙂 Sydney

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