My Dirty Little Secret -> I CHEAT in my DIET

Many people think of diet as a misery or as equal to living in starvation. Even “BETTER”, many people think, to be successful in diet, you have to suffer. The more you suffer the more you will gain from your diet. After all, no pain no gain right? Yeah, right (You should see the smirk on my face when I am writing, “Yeah, right”)

To begin with, diet means “controlled food intake/eating”. It does not mean “eating very little/less than enough” until you starve all the time.

Here is another fact. The wrong conception and mindset I mentioned above is the number one reason why most people give up their controlled diet within the first 3 months. After 3 months enduring starvation and suffering, finally they have had enough pain and decided to quit. Once they quit, their body weights and fats will skyrocket since their bodies are in starvation mode. In starvation mode, your body thinks that food is scarce. Therefore, it will always break down muscles since muscle requires a lot of energy (from food of course) to maintain. Even worse, it will store everything you eat into fat to make sure it has enough stored energy in case “no food is available anymore”. That is what your body thinks if you live in starvation for too long. So, I hope I make it clear here that diet is not equal to be starving all the time, NOT EVEN CLOSE.

That is about “diet is not equal to living in starvation”. How about diet is a misery? Of course when you implement “diet” as “eating very little/less than enough or live in starvation”, diet is a misery. But if your diet is implemented as controlled food intake/eating, it is not as miserable. I have been dieting for more than half a year and I enjoy every second of it. I don’t feel miserable. I don’t think of it as a burden, pain, suffering, or anything like that. I enjoy it. BUT I do feel bored sometimes. I do want to eat food that is different from the one I have in my diet schedule/list. I want to go “wild” sometimes and eat whatever I want without any restrictions. Sometimes, I just want to go away from all the restrictions from my diet and eat “freely”

You might ask, “You feel bored and you continue doing it every day. You deny yourself every day. That is misery right?” This one, I would have to say yes. Just imagine yourself doing a very boring thing everyday again and again for the rest of your life or restricting yourself from doing what you love for the rest of your life. That is misery. BUT, I DO HAVE THE SOLUTION.

Here is my dirty little secret. I CHEAT in my diet. Even “WORSE”, I cheat regularly, once every week. How do I cheat? For one day every week, I allow myself to eat whatever I want in any amount I want as long as it is still healthy food (Junk foods and trans-fat loaded foods are not included here). During my cheat days, I usually overload myself on Carbs such as bread, ice cream, pure chocolate, and rice. I can eat them in any amount I want.

Let me tell you. This is better than just satisfying your cravings and hunger. This also boosts your metabolism, which means more fat will be burned in the subsequent days. When you control your food intake, your body will adjust its metabolism. Cheat day is there to keep your metabolism high. By overloading once in a while, your body metabolism will be maintained at high level. This is what you want to lose fat and improve muscle-building process. But the best part is, it satisfies your cravings for food you don’t normally take during normal days. So, it is a win-win situation, for your cravings and your body-building effort.

So don’t worry, go and cheat once in a while, but remember, stick to the whole and healthy food, and stay away from that junk food corner filled with trans fats.

Till next newsletter, enjoy your diet.

Tobias KG
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com