How to go about eating unhealthy meals a healthy way:
First of all, for all of you that are not familiar with what a cheat meal is, It is a meal or set of meals in a small time frame that satisfies cravings while on a diet or macronutrient eating plan. Basically, this is a chance for you to break your diet without going crazy, insane, or having daytime fantasies about food. Cheat meals can be a great tool to help carve out that physique you have been aiming for….
The science behind it:
Most diets, one way or another, base themselves off placing your body in a caloric deficit. That means that you are exhausting more calories out than you are putting back into your body. With this comes changes in hormone and Leptin (protein) levels within your body. A rapid change in these due to fasting or dramatic low-calorie deficits can actually increase food intake and body weight. You can often find that your bodies ability to process fat reduces, aka metabolism. This can make you feel low on energy, and have rubbish and sluggish workouts.
By eating a meal which rapidly spikes protein synthesis and glucose levels within your body, you are able to keep progressing with your diet at a steady rate….rather than hurting the process.
The smart way to do it:
We talk about how a cheat meal can be beneficial, but there is still a need to be smart and not over indulge. For example, eating an entire container of ice cream is not going to be in any way beneficial to your diet plan. When we speak about a cheat meal here at The Olympic, we are talking about something that still has good amounts of protein, fats and carbohydrates.
Personally, a cheat meal which I typically go for would be a big burger and fries. You get your cravings satisfied with the glucose spike in the sauce, protein in the beef patties and carbs in everything else.
Eating a pizza is a popular cheat meal option…but consider eating something of higher quality product…rather than a simple $5 option which is nothing but processed cheese. If I was to go for a pizza, it would be a thin crust Meat Lovers.
Schedule the cheat meal:
By scheduling the cheat meal, it makes the diet during the week more exciting. You have a meal which you can set yourself to look forward to, and then reset yourself for the following week. Being caught in repetition is often the reason why some people fail. A Sunday night cheat meal could suddenly be the highlight of your week. It is a reward for keeping to your diet….. Schedule it in along with your Olympic Pools and Fitness Centre attendance. Balance your gym workouts and food.
Reminder*
Here at The Olympic Gym, we are not recommending that you go and eat whatever you want and then expect to get healthy results. Instead we want to be realistic, and hopefully, inform you that you can enjoy “bad” food every once in a while…along with exercise, and actually create better results.
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