The Cheat-Day Effect
The other day my brother was telling me about a diet plan he heard about on the radio. He wanted to see what my thoughts were on the whole thing. The idea of the diet was this: eat super healthy six days out of the week and have one day where you can eat what you want. I then asked this question: "Do you want my opinion nutritionally, psychologically, or just my overall opinion? Because each opinion is different." He said he wanted to know everything...and the rant began. Well, not a rant. But it was definitely a passionate answer--more like a soap-box type of experience.
Anyways, there is one central point I want to get across in this post: food is just as psychological as it is physical. However, fad diets often don't focus on the psychological aspect, hoping that the person won't notice how awful they feel because of the weight loss. What is interesting is that the reason people gain back the weight after a fad diet is most often because of the mental consequences of the diet itself--it very rarely has to do with any physical problem. And if it does have to do with a physical problem, there is most often a psychological component attached.
There are countless people I know that eat food that they don't like because it is low in calorie--they don't bother to learn how to cook healthy food that tastes yummy! They just suffer! Then when their 'cheat-day' comes, they eat 4 Big Macs, 27 cookies, 3 large fries, 9 bowls of cereal, an entire pan of brownies, and 5 sodas. The next six days they eat really well, and the cycle continues.
To this, I just have one questions: WHY?! Why would you ever do that to yourself!
Nutritionally, this may not be the best plan. The body doesn't just erase all of the calories and nutrients you ate in a day at the stroke of midnight. Though the body is awesome and does a lot of complicated things, it doesn't work that way. The body's system is a system of averages. You can eat really really well for six days, but if you eat nothing but empty calories that provide no nutritional value on the seventh day, it decreases each of the other six days' success.
And what happens if you mess up? What happens if you eat something you aren't supposed to on a non-cheat-day? Psychologically, our relationship with food can begin to deteriorate. If we start to think of eating a cookie as 'cheating', we begin to put labels on food as 'good' or 'bad'. Then when we 'cheat', we start to feel guilty and depressed. We begin to look down on ourselves. We begin to let food control us.
I know I have brought this principle up time and time again, but food isn't here to tell us what to think about ourselves. And to me, the concept of a cheat-day does exactly that.
Now, I am not saying that all people are like this. I have met people that fall on both sides of spectrum of the ability to maintain psychological happiness while following a strict cheat-day eating plan. To many, a cheat-day is simply a day where they relax the reins just a little bit; they have dessert, they don't count their calories, they eat higher calorie foods, etc. I, on the other hand, am not one of those people. And I have tried this eating plan many many many MANY times...
As always, what it all comes down to is how your diet makes you feel. I hope we are all eating in a way that makes us energized, happy, and ready to take on life's adventures. If this means we eat one cookie everyday, then awesome! If this means we save one day out of the week and eat a couple of cookies on that day, then awesome! I know that I need to have a little bit of chocolate everyday to stay sane...
But no, if you are not one of those people that can successfully implement the cheat-day diet, that doesn't mean you are less healthy than an individual who can. That doesn't mean you are addicted to sugar and can't live without it. It simply means that healthy looks and feels different for you than it might for another person. Which is utterly, perfectly, and completely normal. Do not fret.
So if the 'cheat-day' works for you, then keep at it! And if it doesn't (I am basically the mayor of "cheat-day fails" town), then you are doing great! And don't think otherwise.
There are countless people I know that eat food that they don't like because it is low in calorie--they don't bother to learn how to cook healthy food that tastes yummy! They just suffer! Then when their 'cheat-day' comes, they eat 4 Big Macs, 27 cookies, 3 large fries, 9 bowls of cereal, an entire pan of brownies, and 5 sodas. The next six days they eat really well, and the cycle continues. To this, I just have one questions: WHY?! Why would you ever do that to yourself!
Nutritionally, this may not be the best plan. The body doesn't just erase all of the calories and nutrients you ate in a day at the stroke of midnight. Though the body is awesome and does a lot of complicated things, it doesn't work that way. The body's system is a system of averages. You can eat really really well for six days, but if you eat nothing but empty calories that provide no nutritional value on the seventh day, it decreases each of the other six days' success.
And what happens if you mess up? What happens if you eat something you aren't supposed to on a non-cheat-day? Psychologically, our relationship with food can begin to deteriorate. If we start to think of eating a cookie as 'cheating', we begin to put labels on food as 'good' or 'bad'. Then when we 'cheat', we start to feel guilty and depressed. We begin to look down on ourselves. We begin to let food control us.
I know I have brought this principle up time and time again, but food isn't here to tell us what to think about ourselves. And to me, the concept of a cheat-day does exactly that.
Now, I am not saying that all people are like this. I have met people that fall on both sides of spectrum of the ability to maintain psychological happiness while following a strict cheat-day eating plan. To many, a cheat-day is simply a day where they relax the reins just a little bit; they have dessert, they don't count their calories, they eat higher calorie foods, etc. I, on the other hand, am not one of those people. And I have tried this eating plan many many many MANY times...As always, what it all comes down to is how your diet makes you feel. I hope we are all eating in a way that makes us energized, happy, and ready to take on life's adventures. If this means we eat one cookie everyday, then awesome! If this means we save one day out of the week and eat a couple of cookies on that day, then awesome! I know that I need to have a little bit of chocolate everyday to stay sane...
But no, if you are not one of those people that can successfully implement the cheat-day diet, that doesn't mean you are less healthy than an individual who can. That doesn't mean you are addicted to sugar and can't live without it. It simply means that healthy looks and feels different for you than it might for another person. Which is utterly, perfectly, and completely normal. Do not fret.
So if the 'cheat-day' works for you, then keep at it! And if it doesn't (I am basically the mayor of "cheat-day fails" town), then you are doing great! And don't think otherwise.
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