Give Them an Inch, They will Take a Mile
As I recall, the first time I heard the concept of cheat meals was from Bill Phillips in the 1990s in Muscle Media 2000 or Body for Life. He even took it further than that with cheat days. Some of the people following his programs would (reportedly) utilize that entire day to gorge themselves for as many of those 24 hours as they possibly could. Bill is an innovator and pioneer in the space who I hold in high regard with respect to what he did there. I also have an edition of his Anabolic Reference Guide from 1991, that I purchased back then. That book is on my bookshelf next to Dan Duchaine’s Underground Body Opus, which I purchased back in the late ’90s as well. I was on one of Bill’s early mailing lists (not email mind you, physical USPS mailing lists) when he first started selling Met-Rx back in the ’90s years before EAS, Body For Life, etc. More about that later in another article.
Have Your Cheat Meal, Then Fix Your Diet Plan
diet (noun)
1: the food that a person or animal usually eats
diet plan (noun)
1: a method or formulation of the kind and amount of food that a person eats for a certain reason (such as to improve health or to lose weight)
If you have been neglecting yourself with an overly restrictive diet plan, cheat meals (or days) can help refeed your body with nutrients or calories that you have been lacking. Those cheat meals can also establish a behavior that can set you up for failure in the longer term. “Cheating” creates an ongoing temporary fix situation that has you longing for your previous state diet. If you return to your previous state diet, you will return to your previous form. I am not recommending that you always and forever abandon those occasional gluttonous days. However, wiring them into your routine on an ongoing basis is a recipe for failure. Further, by definition, if you feel the need to cheat, you might have a bad diet plan. I only say might because maybe you are on a very specific context prep,… but then again, even that situation doesn’t allow for a valid cheat meal. If you are jonesing for it, my recommendation is to have that cheat meal (or day). Fill up, enjoy your brief gluttony. After that, fix your diet plan so it is effective at fulfilling your goals, is sustainable, and is fully satisfying.
Build your diet plan with satisfying diet plan-adhering meals that eliminate your desire for cheat meals. Going forward from there, you shouldn’t feel the need to cheat. (Your diet plan should not be limited to skinless chicken breast, broccoli, and rice. We eat a lot of very satiating foods, loaded with fats, butter, salt, etc.) Your former “cheat meals” should be more like diet plan tweaks or realignment meals. Maybe your adjustment is adding more protein, more bacon (yes real bacon), etc., or adjusting recipes that deliver more satisfying meals and snacks within the bounds of your diet plan. It’s not an all or nothing situation, its more like refinement of your plan over time. As you dial it in, it will be self-regulating to a large degree. Yes you can have that seldom caloric splurge, but you should better understand what it means in the context of maintaining or achieving your goals. Further, with that improved knowledge and better understanding, you and your better angels will be more in control.
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