Cheat days - A good or bad idea?

Cheat days! These are often something I hear people talk about when they trying to eat a Paleo diet. And whilst the concept sounds like a good, 'eat good all week and then on Sunday have a congratulations you did well total food blow out', I am here to tell you that cheat days are a bad idea.

Here is TWO reasons why:

First, eating real food, clean food, Paleo, Primal - whatever you want to call it, is not a diet. It's a lifestyle choice you have made because it makes you look, feel and perform better. Psychologically you will screw everything up if once a week it's perfectly acceptable to eat crap food. You have sabotaged yourself and subconsciously told yourself you have failed. You are also reinforcing that eating crap food is okay, which you know it isn't otherwise you wouldn't be here in the first place.

Now don't get me wrong - having a treat now and then is perfectly acceptable and part of the healthy eating lifestyle. But a set day every week where you can eat your chips, dip and fizzy - ah no, that makes what you are doing a diet and the cheat day some sort of crazy reward. Don't screw up your own psychology and motivation here. Keep it simple - treats are acceptable on occasion, cheat days are not acceptable.

Your goal is to enjoy tasty real foods and develop a healthy psychological relationship with them. If you have a regular cheat day you are constantly reinforcing to yourself that your new eating habits are just a temporary thing. Usually we call this a DIET - and no one likes diets...

Secondly, cheat days tend to involve eating foods that are not within the guidelines of Paleo or clean eating. You must remember why you choose to eliminate these foods in the first place? Because they made you look and feel BAD! Not only that but they cause gut problems but also subsequent inflammation and chronic disease. You need to eat very little of these foods to have problems for days after they are consumed, so your cheat day on Sunday could still be affecting you the following Saturday AND GUESS WHAT?? Tomorrow you get another cheat day, yippee! Consequently, you may as well just eat your cheat foods all the time because the health affects are the same.

There are plenty of treats out there which are Paleo or Primal compliant. For example, making some Paleo muffins or Paleo chocolate. 

I don't think I need to go on too much more because I think those two points cover the main reasons why I think cheat days are BAD. Obtaining your health and fitness goals means setting realistic goals and consistently achieving them. If you don't think you can go 100% with Paleo eating, start at 60% and work your way up to 90-95%. Set yourself up to succeed from the beginning :-)

Information OVERLOAD - what foods should I really eat to be happy and healthy?

There is a lot of information out there about what foods we should eat to be healthy - how do we know what is true?

You have grown up being told that fat is bad for you and makes you fat, and now someone is telling you about how successful they are being on a high fat diet. Eating too many eggs will give you high cholesterol, won't it? And whole grain bread, it is better for you than white bread, right? 

Who do you believe?

And then there are all those 'diets' being sold out there - Aitkins, South Beach, Zone, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig - which one is the best? Why do they work for some people and not others? AND why do they offer contradictory information about what foods you should eat?

Which diet should you choose?

Well I'm going to let you in on a little secret about great health and effortless weight loss. You can trust in what I am saying for two reasons, 1) I'm not selling you anything, no products and 2) what I am going to say is simple and makes sense.

The secret is:

"To feel and look great you need to eat real foods, 80-90% of the time"

Knowing what real foods are is the key. By real foods I mean ones that haven't been process, or if they have - it is minimal. 

They include:

·         Protein from healthy animals, seafood and eggs

·         Carbohydrates from locally grown vegetables, fruit and berries

·         Fats from nuts and seeds , natural oils, and animal products

·         Dairy products such as whole milk, cream, and butter can be consumed as long as they can be tolerated.

To keep it simple, you plate may look like this:

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. These foods will:

·         Support gut health

·         Support immune function and minimize inflammation

·         Promote a healthy hormonal response

·         Promote a healthy psychological relationship with food

If you eat these foods most of the time, good health will follow - how could it

not? Lots of good protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. Nothing to

clog up your gut and make you feel floated, play havoc with your blood sugar

levels or disrupt your much needed sleep!

Good health is about making good nutrition a habit. No need to go on a "diet" and

tell yourself what you CAN'T eat. Establish habits by thinking about all the

yummy foods you CAN eat - that way you will create the lifestyle change you

want without feeling deprived.

So what is one thing you can do today to get you started on your new lifestyle?

Start every day successfully by eating a high protein and high fat breakfast. 

This will maintain good blood sugar levels throughout the morning, keep you full and satisfied and 
help mobilize those fat stores for energy.     

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at:

sara@simpletastynutrition.co.nz