Whenever anybody starts over a new chapter in their life and goes ‘’clean’’ with their diet, there will be a burning desire to slip in a ‘’cheat’’ meal or two and why not? If life isn’t for enjoying, what is it for? However, you also need to be realistic – there are always trade-offs and there is nothing different about this topic. Whilst having enough flexibility to enjoy life is important, you have to make some sacrifices to get that beach ready figure you always promised yourself.

My first thoughts on this matter are this: I want you to make a lifestyle change which means I think having some ‘’cheat’’ food is important if you want it (who doesn’t aye!?). Doing this gives you the freedom necessary to lead a relatively normal life. If your friends want to go out mid-week for a coffee and cake, you can. Likewise if you have a family BBQ on the weekend you can indulge a little and there is no saying no to roast potatoes at the in-laws’ Sunday roast!! A little flexibility and moderation works in my experience; you don’t need to eliminate everything ‘’bad’’ and live like a professional athlete 10 days from stepping on stage. That’s no fun and it is a sure way to make you detest your new lifestyle and in turn probably drive you to binge. Not good.

So what you really need is a plan, a map of the ‘’dos and don’ts’’ which will allow you to –

1. Enjoy some freedom with your favourite naughty foods
2. Minimise the damage caused by these foods we hate to love
3. Understand how to balance things out.

Let’s get to it then shall we?!

A lot of the treats we enjoy are carb and more specifically sugar dense. You know, strawberry cheesecake, pancakes, waffles, donuts, pizza, cookies, ice cream and of course the ever so sinful chocolate!! There is some good news to be had here. If you are smart with your food choices you can really limit the damage these foods can cause. Here’s a 3 point plan on HOW you can do just that.

1)      Get The Timing Right

If you are into lifting at least some weight now (I really hope you are by the way!!) then look to schedule a cheeky treat in after one of your lower body workouts. Once you have finished squatting, leg pressing, walking lunges and all the other fun stuff we do to build a shapely derrière, your body will be zapped. Ok, ‘’zapped’’ is a bit of a throw-away phrase – what I mean is it will be primed to utilise some of the naughtiness our favourite foods possess. Weight training increases insulin sensitivity which can up-regulate the body’s ability to use carbohydrates. Leg training is the ‘’mummy’’ of all resistance based training, it’s the most challenging thus causing the biggest reaction.

If you want to enjoy a little freedom on a weekly basis, enjoy your meal of choice as your post-workout meal. A few slices of thin crust pizza and ice cream for dessert anyone? Talk about damage limitation.

2)      Better Choices

Often you might feel like something which is out of boundaries but do you really need to have an ‘’all singing and dancing’’ calorie fest or could you opt for something a little more diet friendly? Maybe a home-made recipe which replicates the food which is beckoning you over to the dark side perhaps? This is something I do a lot and the more I do it the less I find myself choosing the conventional ‘’cheat’’ food off the shelf.

3)      The Bigger Picture

Point one covered limiting the damage caused by foods, point 3 will go further than that and explain when a ‘’cheat’’ is sometimes a beneficial choice. Sound mad? Well read on and see if you can fathom why pizza might just be a better choice over your usual chicken salad every now and then.

The last phrase, ‘’every now and then’’, is key here – don’t mix my words and take things out of context. What we are talking about is utilising certain foods to manipulate the body’s hormones in a way which can help improve fat loss. This point is valid for those on a lower carb, higher fat, higher protein diet.

Carb cycling is a popular diet choice among many top transformation pros; in short it focuses on ‘’tricking’’ the body. Leptin, a hormone known as the ‘’starvation’’ hormone, can dip after a period of carb restricted dieting. As a result the body becomes more resistant to losing fat; it goes into an ‘’emergency’’ zone. To get around this you need to spike your leptin levels and to do this you need carbohydrates (not fructose ladies, studies tell us fructose isn’t any good at boosting leptin output). It is at this point that arguably some cheat food might actually work in our favour for once, not against us! A good meal of said cheat food (as long as it’s carb dense, which is usually the case) could sort you out.

To add a little context, we are talking anywhere between a 7–28 day period here depending on your body type, and perhaps more importantly how lean you are and how active you are. The leaner you are, the more aggressive your carb cycling needs to be.

So do cheat meals have their place? Yes, both in a physical and psychological sense I think they might just do.