I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently, who is new to training, about 'Cheat Meals', and it made me think about how my approach has changed over the years, and thought it might be worth sharing with you.
One of the questions personal trainers often get asked is “How often can I have a cheat meal" or "How many cheat meals can I have each week?”
Now looking back, if I'm completely honest with you, in the past, like most trainers, I've given advice that although was well meaning, may have done more harm than good 😔
One response I used to give was
"It depends on how strict you are willing to be with your other meals. For example, if you're willing to be super strict during the week, and restrict calories and carbohydrates, you can probably justify having a big 'carb up' on the weekend“.
Another response was something along the lines of
"It depends on how often you train. Your insulin sensitivity is increased after a workout so you can get away with eating more carbs with your post workout meal. So the more often you train, the more carbs you can have"
Looking back, I can't help but feel a little embarrassed by those type of responses😔
Can you see how my first response could potentially lead to a pattern of restricting during the week and overeating on the weekend?
And can you see how the second response could infer that you have to 'earn' the right to have carbs
Fortunately, I'm now much more aware, certainly more so than I was as a young trainer, is how our actions and behaviour are determined by our thoughts, which create feelings.
And how a lot of what we think and feel is directed by the language we use.
Concepts like “earning” food with exercise can be massively problematic, because this type of thinking assigns values to the two things involved.
Exercise = good
Food = bad
And that’s just not a good way to look at it.
Similarly, referring to a meal as a “cheat meal” assigns a negative connotation to it. If it’s cheating, it must be bad.
And in order for the meal to live up to the meaning we’ve assigned to it, well, then it’s going to have to be extra bad.
And if you pardon the pun, this kind of thinking is a recipe for disaster🥁.
Rest assured, I know better now and when asked this question now I try my best to express what I’m about to express to you here.
Don’t demonise food. Instead, make choices that are in alignment with your goals. And if you’re going to indulge, do it intentionally without assigning a value or emotion to it.
Don’t treat exercise as a punishment for making poor food choices or an excuse for doing the same.
Remain neutral. Be Switzerland as they say.
Live on the continuum, instead of at the extremes.
Rewarding yourself with food is a bad idea. So remove the term “cheat meal” from your vocabulary.
And enjoy how much better your nutritional decision-making becomes when you remove guilt from the equation.
As always, I hope that you find this helpful, please feel free to reply with any thoughts or questions you have and I'll try my best to help
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