Have you ever gone on a diet to lose weight but you ended up cheating a little bit – or perhaps even a lot? Now I want you to be brutally honest with me here … because I’m feeling pretty confident that you would be guilty of this, at some point in time.
Now when you committed this little “misdemeanour” – did you throw in the towel and quit, feeling miserable that you failed yet again on another one of your diets?
Well join the millions of other people around the world.
Because realistically – what’s a good diet without a bit of cheating?
And just to make you feel a little bit better – MOST people cheat whenever they start any new diet or eating program. Why? Because whenever you go on any new ‘diet’ – psychologically you think that you’re going to have to deprive yourself of food that you’ve grown to know and love.
Essentially you feel like you’re going to have to miss out on something. And to be honest, most people don’t have the willpower to beat temptation.
But the good news is that if you actually incorporate a little bit of “cheating” into your diet plan, it will actually enhance your chances of staying on the diet long term.
Now I can hear you say – “But won’t cheating defeat the purpose of going on a diet?”
Actually no – because being deprived of any of your favourite foods is certainly not an enjoyable experience, and who wants to do something that they don’t enjoy?
I don’t know about you, but if you were to tell me that I was never going to be able to eat another chocolate bar again or even a bowl of my favourite ice cream – then I would have to say – “you can keep your diet … I’m going to eat whatever I like!”
So what’s my little secret weight loss tip?
It’s called cheating in moderation.
Because if you can learn how to cheat in moderation, then you’re more likely to enjoy being on your diet as you can essentially ‘have your cake and eat it too’.
Now when I mean “in moderation” – I mean feeling totally guilt free about having something naughty to eat every now and then. For example, you could make Sundays the day that you allow yourself some dessert after dinner. (After all … dessert is meant to be a treat anyway, not a daily part of our routine).
So just remember, a diet made up entirely of healthy whole foods will certainly enhance your chances of leading a long and healthy life.
But a diet with mostly healthy foods plus a few splurges every now and then – will help ensure you lead a fairly long, healthy and happy life.
And one that includes chocolate chip cookies as well!
Another really good blog encouraging people to rethink their normal approach to diets without ending up in preaching healthy diet guidelines we can read everywhere.
As a nutritionist I couldn’t agree more that having a treat once in a while is important to make any healthy diet approach sustainable.