Today I’m going to talk about Cheat Day. What is cheat day? One day out of the week I break my strict paleo diet and go hog-wild. In the past I’ve always eventually broke the diet and then getting back on from an unplanned diet is hard. The guilt associated with breaking from the diet is terrible too. So now I plan for it. There are some very good reasons why you should too. I’ll also tell you how taking breaks from most things brings you back with a stronger passion.
I read about the idea for a cheat day from Tim Ferris in his book Four Hour Body. Well worth a read if you have a chance to pick it up In it he goes on to explain that by having one day a week where you dramatically spike caloric intake produces hormonal changes to help fat loss. At first this dumbstruck me. I couldn’t imagine actually planning on breaking my diet. I had always striven
for 100% compliance all the time. However tacos always got me eventually. Damn taco addiction. So I decided finally to give it a test run and see how it went.
The first thing I noticed when I decided to try out the cheat day method was the psychological benefits. I lost the real immediate desire for junk. I would see something like cheesecake and would make a mental note to eat that on cheat day. Then I would move on. All week making notes on what I would eat. The anticipation of cheat day grew huge. The first cheat day I had Nutella for the first time, something I had always wanted to try. M&M’s a Butterfinger, Mexican food and Beer. Yummy good quality beer. It turned out to be an excellent night. Best of all afterwards I was not even interested in that crap again till the next week and I did not gain a single pound.
To be able to pull this off without weight gain you’ll need to follow Tim’s advice. Just a few simple steps. There is website with awesome cheat sheets on Tim’s work that boil down his books to bullet points. The site is called the Four Hour Body Couple. If you’re not into reading a huge book and just want the crib notes check them out.
The possibility of speeding up weight loss is what drew me in but the psychological reasons have sold me on it. When you have a craving its easy to add it to your cheat day menu. Instead of having guilt over it you look forward to cheat day and move on afterwards. After all the crap on cheat day the whole food taste a million times better and I even question I want to keep doing cheat day for about three days after it.
So besides food how can the cheat day principles be applied elsewhere? In your prepping and survival goals. Taking a small break from your goals to give yourself a recharge. If you focus on your goals with a tunnel vision all the time you will eventually snap under the strain. Don’t do anything to set your self back but make sure you take time off to enjoy some of the other activities you enjoy. I have a ton of hobbies and need to focus on them from time to time. When I do I always come back to prepping with a renewed interest in it. Once I took a month off and when I came back I had a tighter budget that allowed for me to expand my long-term food storage plan.
In conclusion remember to take a break sometimes. Burnout is a real problem and planning breaks and cheat days helps to ensure you don’t reach the point of burnout. Go out and enjoy some cheesecake James says it’s OK.