Cheat Day!
Do you give yourself a cheat day or a cheat meal? As I drove through my town today, I saw a sign posted on our local pizza shop. Something about it being a Leap Year and how you have an additional “Cheat Day” so, we should grab a pizza.
This had me thinking about this concept of “Cheating”. As a child, I learned cheating was bad.
The definition I found online states cheating is acting dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an
advantage, especially in a game or examination. Or to avoid (something undesirable) by luck or
skill.
So, how did we get to this place, where we find that a cheat day is an appropriate reward that
we give to ourselves? We all do this, we work hard all week to eat healthy, so when the
weekend comes we celebrate by eating something crazy unhealthy, say a pizza or we drink that
full bottle of wine. But it’s ok, right? We deserve this.
But if we continue to think of food as a reward, we will continue to use food as one. Then we
will constantly be in a battle with our food and more so with ourselves. When we feel that we
are giving up something or that we are denying our self when we make the choice to eat
healthy, drink less, or give up an unhealthy habit, we then will feel the need to fill this void.
When we make the choice to be healthy, we should celebrate our commitment to our self with
the confidence and an understanding that we are worth it. If you feel the need to recognize
your successes with an external reward, do so with a feel-good activity, like spending time with
a friend, taking a walk in nature, or doing an activity that makes you smile. Soon your brain will
make new happy associations to the feel-good activities rather than food.
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