My rules for cheating day

There is some food, which I do not eat: sugar, sweets and juices from a shop, bread, meat and chicken, saturated fats (butter, sunflower oil), alcohol. In spite of that I enjoy every time when I eat! If I want something sweet I can always find a home-made replacement: mix bananas and cocoa in blender, make healthy candies with nuts, dried apricots or raisins, bake a banana bread or buckwheat flour muffins. Or I can just eat a fresh fruit. There are always some options.

But sometimes I do want to eat dessert in my favorite cafe.

So there are some rules, which provide harmony and balance between healthy diet and endorphin level:

1.      Choose one day in a week when you are going to let yourself eat food from your unhealthy list (that list may differ). It is better to choose a day off for that. Have a rest and enjoy a chocolate or an ice-cream, or chocolate ice-cream :).

If you eat a piece of chocolate every morning you should try to do it once a week. The taste of food from your forbidden list becomes richer and brighter if you eat it rarely. This fact was proved by me and my friends and relatives!

Fix the day you chose. In some nourishing programs it is called “cheating day”. It should be the same day every week. My choice is Saturday.

2.      Plan your cheating day in advance. If you don't, Saturday or Sunday can become a day of gluttony with heaviness in your stomach. You should enjoy your favorite sweets during this day.

If I want to eat some dessert during the week I make a promise to myself that I will slowly enjoy this dessert on Saturday. If I'm not in a mood and still want to eat it, I can replace it with home-made healthy sweets.

3.      Try to eat sweets and complex carbohydrates in the first half of your cheating day. You can have them on breakfast, lunch or as a bite. Even on cheating days I do not eat fruits or carbohydrates in the evening as they can quickly influence on fat accumulation. I always eat vegetables and fish or seafood in the evenings.

The main thing as always is balance. Having a cheating day, I don't hurry to eat a lot from my forbidden list. I am prolonging the pleasure. Usually I have some sweet dessert and coffee in the first part of day and some ice-cream later. Next week I can have a dark chocolate. Mostly I don't eat anything from that list. Just because I don't want to. I try to listen to myself and understand the true wishes of my body.