Is having a “cheat day” really in your best interest?
This is a great question when it comes to your food plan. You work so hard all week long to stay on your food plan.
I know there are many plans out there that subscribe to this idea of a cheat day; however, mine does not.
Since I reject the notion of a “diet” and instead embrace the idea of a “foodstyle,” I aim to teach clients how to make a permanent commitment to their food plan. I opt to teach my strategy called Simple Switches.
Imagine you have a high-performance car that only takes premium gas.
You religiously give it premium gas, but one day you go for the cheaper stuff. That car is going to respond poorly to that cheap stuff because it not only needs the premium – it has become used to it as well. It may even break down and require more money to fix it.
That car is YOUR BODY, and your body needs the premium fuel. Not just once in a while, but every day. What you eat and what you absorb are THE BIGGEST contributing factors to your health and performance.
Once you adopt a certain method of eating that fuels your body optimally, it won’t respond well to a cheat day of junk food and inflammatory ingredients.
You may not experience a complete breakdown, but, I promise you, there will be some kind of unwanted bodily response.
It could be a skin breakout, a migraine headache, joint pain, or sinus congestion. I have experienced this myself, along with my clients. I believe this is our bodies’ way of speaking to us. It lets us know when something isn’t working or is out of balance.
The problem is that these symptoms have become so common in our culture that we discount them as normal. We are rarely connected enough to our bodies to pinpoint the exact cause of the symptoms; in fact, it’s rare to actually think that the food we eat could have caused something like that in the first place.
I am all about helping connect you to your food in such a way that you completely understand the impact of your food choices on your body. However, having said that, I am not a drill sergeant. I completely understand that your food plan can’t be so strict that it’s not sustainable (like most diets).
This is where Simple Switches come in.
Simple Switches are an easy way to switch the unhealthy stuff you might still crave with another option that gets you through the craving.
Simple Switches are made by finding healthier alternatives to the things you have come to love but that you know might not be in your best interest to continue eating.
Examples of Simple Switches
Here are a few foundational Simple Switches that I’ve used over the years to help clients retrain their taste buds and still feel satisfied with their food plan:
Milk Chocolate
Simple Switch: 60% or higher Dark Chocolate
Standard Coffee Creamer
Simple Switch: Alternative Coffee Creamer
Sugary Iced Tea
Simple Switch: Unsweetened Iced Tea with Stevia
Pasta
Simple Switch: Spaghetti Squash
Implementing Simple Switches
Simple Switches occur in phases for most of us.
For example, today you might be swapping your milk chocolate for dark chocolate, but in a few months maybe you’ll switch out your chocolate for dates.
It’s not the same process for everyone because each individual is starting at a different place, and I completely respect that as your nutrition coach.
The goal of it all is to swing the pendulum toward increased wellness and vitality for YOU.
We all have to start somewhere, and Simple Switches are a great starting point!
