whats YOUR cheat day like?

[callmecheezcube]

I know everyone suggests cheat days in order to keep from going crazy, but what is your cheat day like?

is yours and entire meal? an entire day? a dessert?

how many times does your cheat day occur during the week/month/year/ etc.?

What's your favorite cheat food? How much of it do you like to eat?

Just figured it would be interesting to hear about everybody.

Have a beautiful day!!!!!!!!!

[sillygirl]

Due to my past history with disordered eating, I try to stay the heck away from a full-out "cheat day".

I usually have a cheat meal a few times a week. It's usually a Shelton's Whole Wheat Chicken Pot Pie. I loooove pot pies [with a big ol' side of cottage cheese!] and most pot pies you find in the grocery store hit around 500+ calories for one serving. These only have 220 calories [I can't afford the organic one, which has 260 calories]. They're a bit high in saturated fat, however, which is why I usually leave them for a once a week "cheat" meal. But goddddd they are soooooo good.

Or I usually splurge on Amy's Organic Garden Vegetable Lasagna. Also VERY good.

Or everyonce in awhile, my friend Aaron drags me to Coldstone Creamery for an Oreo Overload. I get it made with the fat-free sweet cream yogurt [which is DAMN good and about 100 fewer calories than their regular ice cream] but still...with all the added oreos & chocolate chips & fudge...heh. It's a beautiful vice.

And sometimes I just like to reward myself at the end of the day with a Vanilla Creme Pria Bar.

[Emma-Leigh]

I don't really have 'cheat days' because I enjoy a wide variety of food in my 'diet' and I love cooking and usually modify recipes so I can fit them into my daily diet without too much concern (like cottage cheese cheese cake etc). It means that I don't go overboard or anything. There are days where I'll go and have a 'treat' and not worry about it.... I would think once every few weeks or so.

There are also the days where I eat so much that my kidneys start to hurt because they are so sqwished, my pancreas starts to digest itself trying to keep up with the demand and my liver is so overwhelmed that I am at risk of slowly slipping into a hyperglycaemic stuper...... Those are rare, but when they occur - ARggg!!! Watch out!!

However, that being said, my favourite things to 'cheat' on is normally very simple - thick cut dense grained rye sourdough toasted and spread with almond butter, 100% fruit, no added sugar orange and ginger marmalade or promite (no butter - argg.. I hate the stuff). There is nothing nicer than a dense, thick, wholesome peice of good bread toasted to perfection.

But... Some of the other things I love are:
1. Muffins. My god. I am addicted to muffins. But not those crappy 'light as cake, sweet as sugar' muffins you normally get... Blaugh... Talk about gross. They have to be heavy, wholesome, dense brick-like muffins that are more savoury in nature. There are three types of muffins you can get in Sydney that I am addicted to:
- Nothing Naughty muffins: Diary free, egg free, no added fat muffins. Made with wholegrain flour, bran, oats and sweetened with fruit juice. Flavours include blueberry and apple, malted carrot and honey, banana and carob, pumpkin and apricot, apple fig and walnut. They are 97% fat free - because they are about 97% carbs
- Munju muffins: Made with LOTS of good things like oats, oatbran, wheatbran, barley bran, soygrits etc. No added fats or dairy. Flavours I like are blueberry, rasberry, cranberry and apple and apple cinnamon. 97% fat free... damn tasty.
- Ricotta muffins: Made with skim milk ricotta, egg whites and soy flour. They are REALLY moist and yummy!!! You can get flavours like white chocolate and berry (95% fat free), double chocolate (95% ff), pear (97% ff), Apple Cinnamon (97% ff) and orange and poppyseed (97% ff).

2. Fruit cake. I LOVE fruit cake. Like traditional christmas cake. Dense, heavy fruit cake with lots of dried fruit like ginger, plump raisins, figs, apple, saltanas, dates, citrus peel and cherries. I have a recipe for an easy fruit cake that is sooooo good. I also make a 97% ff carrot and date cake. Once I make them I can't stop eating them!!!

3. My mums oatmeal slice. Oh My God. She also used to make this chocolate museli crunch slice that she makes with natural museli and coconut. **drool** They are not that sweet but are thick, chuncky slices that are just amazing.....

4. Other bread - from a recipe book called 'The vegetarian Epicure' there are some quickbread recipes that are really easy to make (and modify to be 'less bad' - eg: use rye flour instead of plain to lower GI) and are really tasty - favourites are Oat and Raisin Bread and Cornbread. They are heavy, wholesome breads that are SOOOOO good if you have them just out of the oven, spread with some fat-free creamed cottage cheese and orange and ginger marlamade.

5. Warm apple and pear pie with an oatmeal cookie crust served with vanilla custard. This recipe I have (yes... fat free again) is the BEST PIE I HAVE EVER TASTED!!

(can you tell I am a carb addict yet ... Hey, at least they are all low fat carbs... and most are low GI too... ok... yes... still BAD)

Other miscellaneous things that I like:
- My mum was a great cook and has heaps of recipes that are SOOOoooo good. Things like Vegetable pie, Vegetarian Lasange, Tomato and Parmassan Tart....
- My sisters Pizza - She went to Italy and learned how to make authentic italian pizza (they don't use cheese or that disguisting tomato paste stuff that we do). But you make this dense, crunchy, thick rye crust and spice it with garlic, olive oil, pepper and a little salt. Then the toppings where really simple. There is spinach - which is just spinach, pepper, salt and olive oil... Then there is roasted garlic and onion... yumm... also oven roasted eggplant, zucchini and capsicum...... mmmmmmm.
- Seafood pad thai.
- Dried fruits. I LOVE dried fruits. Dried figs, crystaline ginger, mustalets, pears.... mmmm... yummy
- Some random junky stuff... Not really a fan of really sweet stuff like this, but you know how you just sometimes get cravings:
Dareal Lea 98% ff soft eating Licorice (Aussies will know what I am talking about), Noughat, Connoisseurs Cookie Cream Commotion ice-cream (Aussies should know this one as well), Pistachio gelato..... and these things you can get from this shop in Paddington called 'Max Brenna - Chocolate By the Bald man'. They are called Saukoas or something and involve taking the finest belguim chocolate and melting it in these little oil-burner type things they give you. You then add a little warm milk, stir and drink.

There is more.... but I think I will reveal myself as too much of a foodie

[sillygirl]

Ohhh my god, carbs are definitely my downfall. I used to live off of Mac & Cheese and Pizza.

I still do like a GOOD pizza [I love CPK, their rosemary potato & garlic or tomato, cheese, and basil pizzas rule!] and I love going out to eat- but it's such a rare indulgence now that I'm on my own and back in school. I go out to eat maybe once a month, if that. Which is shocking, because I used to dine out about 3-4 times a week a few years ago...

I also love hitting Sweet Tomatoes. It's a 'healthy' salad bar with lots of low-fat/vegetarian choices, and they switch their menu every week. But it's a buffet, and I can still do some major damage there...

Dangit, now I'm hungry, hee hee.

[mirror]

Too much restricting brings out my ever-nascent bulimia so I have to plan a higher cal day every 5th or 6th day. Work on 20% above maintenance which for me is 15-1600 cals. But because I can't afford to let the eating devil out jail, I generally stick with 'clean' food, just more of it. I found that when I do eat something 'normal' i.e. loaded with sugar and fat and processed to hell, I get bad reactions, headaches, upset stomach, etc. Makes me feel good mentally in short term, a stress buster etc, but bad physically. I guess i'm on the way to creating my own little group of food allergies. Great! If I could become allergic to caffeine, I'd be all set.

[callmecheezcube]

Originally posted by Emma-Leigh
I don't really have 'cheat days' because I enjoy a wide variety of food in my 'diet' and I love cooking and usually modify recipes so I can fit them into my daily diet without too much concern (like cottage cheese cheese cake etc).

There is more.... but I think I will reveal myself as too much of a foodie

I am a total foodie. Ugh. I think that comes from a past filled with every eating disorder in the book. I'm sure many can relate.

anyway, emma, your recipes sound divine. You have to let me try the cottage cheese cheese cake recipe. I love cottage cheese and I adore cheese cake. . .so that sounds really great.

I also got a recipe for low carb chocolate chip cookies! What a dream come true, warm and oh so ooey gooey. And they probably won't make me want to barf like I have felt lately when I eat anything "normal" i.e., carby, starchy and sugary.

Although I love chocolate. And ice cream. I love ice creams loaded with chunky stuff that's totally bad for you.

My sweet tooth is bigger than my whole body. I swear!

But yestarday I had 2 slices of pizza and ice cream afterwards, becuase they are my two favorite cheat foods, and I wanted to vomit. Thank god I can't take that **** anymore! Hopefully, my need for them will slowly diminish, you know?

Have a great day!!!!

[Emma-Leigh]

Yay for a fellow foodie!! My god - I could talk about food ALL DAY! It is a good thing that I love working out and talking about fitness as well!!

Any recipe you want I'll gladly share. Cake? Cookies? Slice? You name it! Mmmmm... Chocolate cookies!!! If you don't mind could I have that recipe?

Anyway - For that cottage cheese cheesecake - the recipe is HIGHLY flexable and you can add/subtract any number of things and it will still turn out ok. At the moment - my favourite flavour:

Crustless Black-cherry chocolate Cheesecake
In a large bowl, combine -
2 cups (about 500g) creamed cottage cheese (17.7g protein, 0.8g carbs, 2.4g fat per 100g)
2 cups (about 500g) 97% fat free ricotta cheese (14g protein, 2.5g carbs, 3g fat per 100g)
200ml black-cherry, fat-free, sugar-free yoghurt (11g protein, 11g carbs, 0.2g fat)
1 scoop chocolate protein powder - I get stuff you can cook with... (20g protein, 4g carbs, 1.4g fat)
1- 2 tsp of chocolate essence (a flavouring like vanilla essense)
Optional - Add a handful of pitted sour cherries

Then, in a seperate bowl, whip:
8 egg whites (32g protein)

Fold the egg whites lightly through the mix and then pour into a lined cake tin.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at about 200 degrees celcuis until cooked and the top is lightly browned (about 45 minutes), then turn off the oven and leave for about another 20 minutes. Then turn it out into a tray.

Serves 10 people GENEROUSLY at 22g protein, 3g carbs and 2.7g fat each.

Other flavours I really like are:
Orange and Ginger - use citrus yoghurt, plain protein powder and orange and ginger marmalade to flavour
Lemon - Use citrus yoghurt, plain protein powder and lemon juice
Vanilla - use vanilla yoghurt, vanilla protein powder and vanilla essence.

[debbie421]

Am I the only one who does a full on cheat day? I am VERY strict about eating clean-that is unless I go out of town. My rule is when on vacation, my eating goes on vacation! I eat whatever, whenever-I'm a big carb addict so this usually means lots of fatty sweets. Sonic cream pie milkshakes, pasta, candy, anything from Dairy Queen, doughnuts, peanut butter overload-stuff like that. If I don't have a vacation planned for a whole month, I pick a day or 2 and give myself permission to eat like it's vacation. It's worked for me pretty well so far-my only problems are on long vacations-if it's over 3 days I can get some serious bloat that takes me weeks to get rid of.

[TrishB]

I usually limit myself to 2 cheat meals a week. An entire day for me could do way too much damage!

I love my Sunday morning breakfasts. Sweet cinnamon rolls drizzling with caramel, or blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup, or baked apple pancakes bubbling with butter and brown sugar. Now if I were to eat foods like that all day....Oh my!!

[Mrs.Fitness]

I can not take a full cheat day anymore. I used to but now it messes me up! I usually hit the Mexican Restraunt for the chips and salsa, and then top it off with a grande plate of taco's al carbon! I am addicted to this stuff! I usually only do this once every two weeks.

If it is a bad day. my cheat meal consists of beer. And lots of it.

[Aurora]

Cookies!!!

[callmecheezcube]

Originally posted by Emma-Leigh
Chocolate cookies!!! If you don't mind could I have that recipe?

Sure Thing baby. . . .Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Coming Right Up!!!!

Yield: 40 cookies, 3.2 carbs, 2.4 protien 40 minutes prep, 12-16 min per cookie

4 egg yolks
3 tbsp brown sugar, lightly packed
15 packets of splenda sweetner
8 tbsp butter, soft
2 tspn vanilla extract
3 tbsp unbleached all purpose wheat flour
1/3c vital wheat gluten flour
2 tbsp crude wheat bran
1 tspn baking powder
3/4c whole almond meal
trace of salt
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip
3/4c chopped walnuts

1. in a mixing bowl, combine egg yolks, brown sugar and splenda beat until thick and creamy
2. add remaining ingredients except chocoltae chips and nuts and beat until smooth at a slow speed.
3. stir in wallnuts and chocolate chips
4. refridgerate dough for an hour or until firm enough to handle
5. prehest oven to 325 degrees
6. shape dough into balls ad place on non stick cookie sheet
7. bake cookies for 12-16 minutes or until lightly brown
8. cool and serve.


*Also, I love ice cream. Any good brands that you've liked to use on your cheat day that won't necessarily murder your diet? I've heard skinny cow is good. Any suggestions?

[imperfectly_lou]

My poor body can't cope with one whole cheat day... it leaves me so ill so I instead have 2 cheat meals a week - ice cream and ice cream! hehe It is low fat and chocolate though!

[I DREAM OF # 1]

i eat candy , cake , etc on my cheat days

[devotchkas]

I don't really have 'cheat days' because I enjoy a wide variety of food in my 'diet' and I love cooking and usually modify recipes so I can fit them into my daily diet without too much concern (like cottage cheese cheese cake etc). It means that I don't go overboard or anything. There are days where I'll go and have a 'treat' and not worry about it.... I would think once every few weeks or so.

There are also the days where I eat so much that my kidneys start to hurt because they are so sqwished, my pancreas starts to digest itself trying to keep up with the demand and my liver is so overwhelmed that I am at risk of slowly slipping into a hyperglycaemic stuper...... Those are rare, but when they occur - ARggg!!! Watch out!!

However, that being said, my favourite things to 'cheat' on is normally very simple - thick cut dense grained rye sourdough toasted and spread with almond butter, 100% fruit, no added sugar orange and ginger marmalade or promite (no butter - argg.. I hate the stuff). There is nothing nicer than a dense, thick, wholesome peice of good bread toasted to perfection.

But... Some of the other things I love are:
1. Muffins. My god. I am addicted to muffins. But not those crappy 'light as cake, sweet as sugar' muffins you normally get... Blaugh... Talk about gross. They have to be heavy, wholesome, dense brick-like muffins that are more savoury in nature. There are three types of muffins you can get in Sydney that I am addicted to:
- Nothing Naughty muffins: Diary free, egg free, no added fat muffins. Made with wholegrain flour, bran, oats and sweetened with fruit juice. Flavours include blueberry and apple, malted carrot and honey, banana and carob, pumpkin and apricot, apple fig and walnut. They are 97% fat free - because they are about 97% carbs
- Munju muffins: Made with LOTS of good things like oats, oatbran, wheatbran, barley bran, soygrits etc. No added fats or dairy. Flavours I like are blueberry, rasberry, cranberry and apple and apple cinnamon. 97% fat free... damn tasty.
- Ricotta muffins: Made with skim milk ricotta, egg whites and soy flour. They are REALLY moist and yummy!!! You can get flavours like white chocolate and berry (95% fat free), double chocolate (95% ff), pear (97% ff), Apple Cinnamon (97% ff) and orange and poppyseed (97% ff).

2. Fruit cake. I LOVE fruit cake. Like traditional christmas cake. Dense, heavy fruit cake with lots of dried fruit like ginger, plump raisins, figs, apple, saltanas, dates, citrus peel and cherries. I have a recipe for an easy fruit cake that is sooooo good. I also make a 97% ff carrot and date cake. Once I make them I can't stop eating them!!!

3. My mums oatmeal slice. Oh My God. She also used to make this chocolate museli crunch slice that she makes with natural museli and coconut. **drool** They are not that sweet but are thick, chuncky slices that are just amazing.....

4. Other bread - from a recipe book called 'The vegetarian Epicure' there are some quickbread recipes that are really easy to make (and modify to be 'less bad' - eg: use rye flour instead of plain to lower GI) and are really tasty - favourites are Oat and Raisin Bread and Cornbread. They are heavy, wholesome breads that are SOOOOO good if you have them just out of the oven, spread with some fat-free creamed cottage cheese and orange and ginger marlamade.

5. Warm apple and pear pie with an oatmeal cookie crust served with vanilla custard. This recipe I have (yes... fat free again) is the BEST PIE I HAVE EVER TASTED!!

(can you tell I am a carb addict yet ... Hey, at least they are all low fat carbs... and most are low GI too... ok... yes... still BAD)

Other miscellaneous things that I like:
- My mum was a great cook and has heaps of recipes that are SOOOoooo good. Things like Vegetable pie, Vegetarian Lasange, Tomato and Parmassan Tart....
- My sisters Pizza - She went to Italy and learned how to make authentic italian pizza (they don't use cheese or that disguisting tomato paste stuff that we do). But you make this dense, crunchy, thick rye crust and spice it with garlic, olive oil, pepper and a little salt. Then the toppings where really simple. There is spinach - which is just spinach, pepper, salt and olive oil... Then there is roasted garlic and onion... yumm... also oven roasted eggplant, zucchini and capsicum...... mmmmmmm.
- Seafood pad thai.
- Dried fruits. I LOVE dried fruits. Dried figs, crystaline ginger, mustalets, pears.... mmmm... yummy
- Some random junky stuff... Not really a fan of really sweet stuff like this, but you know how you just sometimes get cravings:
Dareal Lea 98% ff soft eating Licorice (Aussies will know what I am talking about), Noughat, Connoisseurs Cookie Cream Commotion ice-cream (Aussies should know this one as well), Pistachio gelato..... and these things you can get from this shop in Paddington called 'Max Brenna - Chocolate By the Bald man'. They are called Saukoas or something and involve taking the finest belguim chocolate and melting it in these little oil-burner type things they give you. You then add a little warm milk, stir and drink.

There is more.... but I think I will reveal myself as too much of a foodie

I know this is an old post, but have you ever tried VitaMuffins? You can buy them at Safeway and they're full of good stuff and really delicious!

[joyce261]

i know this is really weird, but last time i had a cheat day, i bought a store-bought birthday cake--you know, the kind with the icing that everyone hates. except i love it for some reason. what can i say, deep down i'll always be a sugar addict.

[euco09]

i know this is really weird, but last time i had a cheat day, i bought a store-bought birthday cake--you know, the kind with the icing that everyone hates. except i love it for some reason. what can i say, deep down i'll always be a sugar addict.

That made me laugh :-)

I hate to admit it but my cheat day usually involves alcohol. I try to eat as best I can on that day and drink lots of water but I know its still bad. I just love kicking back and having a few drinks and relaxing. When it comes to chaeting with food I don't really have anything I crave that much. Except the last few days I can't get choc chip muffins out of my head! I nearly got one yesterday and resisted. I can usually resist any 'cheaty' foods except if I go to someones house and there aren't really any other options

[danibel]

Am I the only one who does a full on cheat day? I am VERY strict about eating clean-that is unless I go out of town. My rule is when on vacation, my eating goes on vacation! I eat whatever, whenever-I'm a big carb addict so this usually means lots of fatty sweets. Sonic cream pie milkshakes, pasta, candy, anything from Dairy Queen, doughnuts, peanut butter overload-stuff like that. If I don't have a vacation planned for a whole month, I pick a day or 2 and give myself permission to eat like it's vacation. It's worked for me pretty well so far-my only problems are on long vacations-if it's over 3 days I can get some serious bloat that takes me weeks to get rid of.

You're not alone!

Every month or two, whenever I visit my family, I make a mini-vacation out of it - in terms of eating, that is - mostly because it's too much of a hassle to log my food while I'm away from my computer. So, when my relatives tell me that I'm looking too thin (lol) and that I should eat more (Italians... :P), I happily indulge in whatever they throw at me. It works for me!

Edited to add: Dang, old thread is old. Sorry.

[FemmeFatale28]

Old Thread.. But I was reading and thinking MAN Im glad 'cheat days/meals' are over for me lol. Since I started Intermittent Fasting.. just about anything within reason fits. Most freeing way to eat.. on earth. In my opinion anyway.

[MichelleAntonia]

Am I the only one who does a full on cheat day? I am VERY strict about eating clean-that is unless I go out of town. My rule is when on vacation, my eating goes on vacation! I eat whatever, whenever-I'm a big carb addict so this usually means lots of fatty sweets. Sonic cream pie milkshakes, pasta, candy, anything from Dairy Queen, doughnuts, peanut butter overload-stuff like that. If I don't have a vacation planned for a whole month, I pick a day or 2 and give myself permission to eat like it's vacation. It's worked for me pretty well so far-my only problems are on long vacations-if it's over 3 days I can get some serious bloat that takes me weeks to get rid of.

This is me exactly. I am super, super strict otherwise, so what's the harm in just not paying ANY attention for a few days? As long as I get right back into "dieting", it's not a problem. And I don't have to think about how many carbs/calories/fat grams my "cheat" is gonna have. It's not a cheat if I'm thinking about those things!

[MichelleAntonia]

Old Thread.. But I was reading and thinking MAN Im glad 'cheat days/meals' are over for me lol. Since I started Intermittent Fasting.. just about anything within reason fits. Most freeing way to eat.. on earth. In my opinion anyway.

Details? Is there a thread about IF somewhere?

[vandalgirl59]

While I love pretty much ANY food thats not so healthy haha, my 2 go-tos when I 'cheat' are always the same things. Ice cream (generally ben and jerrys half baked) and spaghetti (make it myself, and I make BIIIIIIG portions hahahahaha)

[FemmeFatale28]

Details? Is there a thread about IF somewhere?

www.leangains.com and there is a thread in Advance Nutrition

[Enneagram1]

I see that this is an old post that has been given new life

My first experience with "cheat days" was a year or two back. I was working with a trainer and together we were monitoring my food intake and macronutrient breakdown. I was being really strict with my diet and as a reward for my hard work he suggested I have a cheat day.

I was so excited - but a little apprehensive as I have a long history of eating disorders (both anorexia and bulimia). When the day arrived I freaked out. I was paralyzed by indecision. So many choices, so many cravings that I had fought so hard to beat.

The cheat day happened to be on the same day as a big gym challenge in which I did 4 back to back RPM (spin) classes. It was for charity and I worked at the gym so I kind of had to be involved. So I burnt 1750 cal in exercise and my grand total in food intake was....... wait for it...... about 1000 cal. That's insane!!

I had planned to have gelato but when I went to the gelato shop I couldn't decide which flavor to get so I ended up with nothing. Same happened in the chocolate isle at the supermarket. By the end of the day I was in tears. I wished the day to be over so that I could go back to weighing my oats and measuring my light soy milk!!!

When I met with the trainer at the end of the week he was like "WTF was that??"

I'm a little better with letting go now, but I can't do a full cheat day. Sends me into a tailspin. It has to be a cheat meal or more likely a cheat dessert as I have a sweet tooth.

I'm thinking heavy mud cake or sticky date pudding with caramel sauce or lemon meringue pie. YUM

[IronCitGrl]

I know everyone suggests cheat days in order to keep from going crazy, but what is your cheat day like?

is yours and entire meal? an entire day? a dessert?

how many times does your cheat day occur during the week/month/year/ etc.?

What's your favorite cheat food? How much of it do you like to eat?

Just figured it would be interesting to hear about everybody.

Have a beautiful day!!!!!!!!!

I allow for a cheat to be an entire day. It can be an entire meal or just a dessert whatever I want--I just keep in mind that eating crap foods will make me feel like crap,my workouts suffer and I don't gain muscle to my full potential so most of the time it ends up being not the entire day and not an entire meal.

My cheat days occur every single day. I allow myself to have a treat everyday whether it be some dark chocolate, a little bit of candy, a small piece of cake, a cookie etc. If I want a damn cookie I eat the damn cookie and cut something else out.

My favorite cheat food is anything with cheese on or in it or anything with chocolate on or in it. I like to eat enough so that it satisfies my desire for it but without being overly stuffed and gross feeling

And I don't like calling it "cheating" what are we taking a test to see how obsessive and crazy we can be?

[coconuttree2009]

I know everyone suggests cheat days in order to keep from going crazy, but what is your cheat day like?

is yours and entire meal? an entire day? a dessert?

how many times does your cheat day occur during the week/month/year/ etc.?

What's your favorite cheat food? How much of it do you like to eat?

Just figured it would be interesting to hear about everybody.

Have a beautiful day!!!!!!!!!

I don't have 'cheat days' or 'cheat meals' - I 'cheat' every day, ie I eat what I want and like Emma Leah, I cook a lot and just make a healthier version of anything I fancy to fit in my kcals and macros of the day be it a cheesecake, chocolate brownie or carrot cake. The thing is I grew to love healthy food and never ever fancy any fast food or sugary, deep fried stuff and will take grilled chicken breast with greens over KFC any day. The only downfall for me is ice-cream, but there are so many low fat/low sugar options these days that it is not hard to incorporate into my daily kcals and macros, therefore, I eat ice-cream every day.

[Holly2710]

My last cheat meal I baked cookies for a friend and ate half the cookie dough. It was weird cause I didnt want it... after eating it I felt sooooo sick. Between each bite I had to drinka glass of water cause I wasnt use to the sweetness.
I find cheats are over rated. Dont force them. They come when they come. If a friend invites you out for dinner there's your cheat. I like having a day when I don count cals at all and just eat whatever I want that is healthy. Cheats just make me feel like ****

[Rowyn]

If it fits into your cals and macros, its not a cheat is it? You guys are talking about eating "dirty", not cheats. Lots of people don't eat whole foods all the time and fit processed/fatty/junk food into their day, its not cheating, its planning, lol.

[MichelleAntonia]

www.leangains.com and there is a thread in Advance Nutrition

Thanks!

[powerbarsssssss]

When I'm not dieting down, I eat whatever the hell I want. I ate cookies on a daily basis leading up to the start of my prep.

Now that I'm cutting for a contest, I don't waste my cheats on candy. I try to pick meals that will keep me full for the rest of the night and still provide some sort of nutritional value. I LOOOOOVE mozzarella and that's my go-to cheat (I get plenty of protein and it doesn't make me feel sick like a junk food binge would).

My cheats so far have been

- Tomato caprese, couple slices of italian bread, few bites of fettuccine alfredo
- Tomato, basil, mozzarella sandwich (ciabatta bread) & a bag of chips
- Veggie burger with a side of buttery vegetables
- 2 slices of Domino's pizza & 2 cinna sticks (this was a huge mistake, I felt really sick and didn't even enjoy it. Back to mozzarella!)

I told myself I would stay away from chocolate until my celebratory post contest meal I might go into a frenzy if it touches my mouth any time before then