21 Days of Accountability – Day 9

The psychology behind a cheat day.

That’s what I’m talking about today. Have you heard of a cheat day?

This is how it goes. Six days a week you eat well. You stick to your healthy eating guidelines. On the seventh day you’re allowed to relax. You can eat whatever you want. We call it a cheat day.

The physiological reason for this is because it can help your body believe it’s not starving. If your body believes it’s starving it stops burning fat. It’s like a knee-jerk reaction where instead of burning it, it grabs on tight and fights to hold on to as much of it as possible. Remember, us humans have been around for thousands of years and there have been many times of famine. When we adjust the way we eat our bodies still operate the same way as it would for those who were actually starving.

I’m not on the biggest loser. My aim is not to drop huge amounts of weight each week and eat a super restricted caloric diet.

My aim is to drop the weight using a method that will be easy enough for me to carry on living the rest of my life.

Now when I started 9 days ago, I wasn’t sure whether or not I even wanted to include a weekly cheat day. I battled in my head about how it would be really bad because it would make it super easy to go off track.

What happened instead though was the exact opposite. Psychologically because I had ’allowed’ myself to have whatever I wanted, I didn’t actually want anything bad! I didn’t feel controlled or trapped into a ‘stupid diet’. Instead I still made healthy choices and then when I found myself at a farewell/meeting last night, I didn’t have any guilt or panic when there was a small spread for everyone. I grabbed something to snack on and socialised, happy that I wasn’t going to overeat.

It reminded me that in real life, you have times where you will relax with family and friends and if you choose that day to be your cheat day you’re not setting yourself up for failure. You won’t beat yourself up because you’ve planned it and you haven’t strayed from your goal.

What I also realised on my first cheat day is that habits really are being established. All I wanted to do was make healthy choices and go to the gym! My body was craving it. It’s a nice feeling, I’ve missed it a lot.

I’ve chosen my free day’s to coincide with the day we buy our groceries. My husband and I like to have a lunch date on that day (usually sushi) and it’s the day my art meetings fall on. It’s a very rushed day and although I didn’t do anything I regret yesterday, there will more than likely be a day I do. It makes it easier to shop for healthy options when you know you don’t want anything bad because you’re already feeling A) Like crap or B) Really good.

So what happened today after my cheat day? I woke up, had a healthy breakfast and downed some water. I’m having a great time!

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Tagged as: cheat day, fat, losing weight, physiologically, psychology, weight loss