I have discussed the concept of the Cheat Day in the past. If you are interested in trying out a diet that relies on a weekly Cheat Day, check out The Four Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss. His diet is called the Slow Carb Diet. I believe this diet can definitely work for people who are not me. When I instituted the weekly Cheat Day, I gained so much weight from that one day that it took me the rest of the following week to lose it again. Just in time for the next Cheat Day! Maybe my cheating was overly voracious, but it seemed to be in line with the cheating described in the book!
The underlying concept behind the Cheat Day is that when you are regularly restricting your calories, your body can go into a "starvation mode" and metabolism can slow to a crawl in order to conserve fat. The Cheat Day shocks your body with a sudden avalanche of calories and thus promotes increased metabolism. As I say, this is the IDEA. For me, it was not successful.
However, that doesn't mean I have banished all cheating from my diet. In fact, I have done plenty of random and unlimited cheating in recent days. Hence, the recipes recently posted. (See Deep, Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cake, for example.) However, all this rampant cheating is not leading me toward my goals. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I think the reason everyone hates diets so much is the lack of cheating. I mean, following a proscribed program that limits your intake of certain foods, probably those to which you are most addicted, is not going to be roses and butterflies. Not in the beginning. Not until you lose enough weight to start feeling really great, looking into the mirror and saying "YES!"
But can you get there without ANY cheating? How much cheating is advisable? How much cheating is detrimental to the extent that all progress will be obliterated?
I don't know.
According to my own experiments, I found that a weekly Cheat Day did not work. I have also tried a Daily Cheat Snack. If you scroll way back to my earliest posts, there is a recipe for a Chocolate Cheesecake. I applied the concept of mathematics to my cheesecake recipe in order to make one slice (one eighth of the whole) a perfectly balanced Zone 2-block snack. I used this as my final "meal" of the day with excellent results. If you are a chocolate addict, this might be one answer to the cheating dilemma. A small, controlled cheat can possibly fit into a healthy, balanced diet, but this might not feel enough like cheating to you.
All this talk of cheating is leading toward our September Whole Foods Challenge. Will there be any cheating involved in this month-long endeavor to de-junk our diets? The last time I completely eliminated all sugar from my diet I lasted ALMOST a full month. I fell off the wagon after about 28 days. This time I'd like to get to 30! Maybe with your support, I can do it.
The underlying concept behind the Cheat Day is that when you are regularly restricting your calories, your body can go into a "starvation mode" and metabolism can slow to a crawl in order to conserve fat. The Cheat Day shocks your body with a sudden avalanche of calories and thus promotes increased metabolism. As I say, this is the IDEA. For me, it was not successful.
However, that doesn't mean I have banished all cheating from my diet. In fact, I have done plenty of random and unlimited cheating in recent days. Hence, the recipes recently posted. (See Deep, Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cake, for example.) However, all this rampant cheating is not leading me toward my goals. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I think the reason everyone hates diets so much is the lack of cheating. I mean, following a proscribed program that limits your intake of certain foods, probably those to which you are most addicted, is not going to be roses and butterflies. Not in the beginning. Not until you lose enough weight to start feeling really great, looking into the mirror and saying "YES!"
But can you get there without ANY cheating? How much cheating is advisable? How much cheating is detrimental to the extent that all progress will be obliterated?
I don't know.
According to my own experiments, I found that a weekly Cheat Day did not work. I have also tried a Daily Cheat Snack. If you scroll way back to my earliest posts, there is a recipe for a Chocolate Cheesecake. I applied the concept of mathematics to my cheesecake recipe in order to make one slice (one eighth of the whole) a perfectly balanced Zone 2-block snack. I used this as my final "meal" of the day with excellent results. If you are a chocolate addict, this might be one answer to the cheating dilemma. A small, controlled cheat can possibly fit into a healthy, balanced diet, but this might not feel enough like cheating to you.
All this talk of cheating is leading toward our September Whole Foods Challenge. Will there be any cheating involved in this month-long endeavor to de-junk our diets? The last time I completely eliminated all sugar from my diet I lasted ALMOST a full month. I fell off the wagon after about 28 days. This time I'd like to get to 30! Maybe with your support, I can do it.
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