Why I Don’t Have “Cheat Days”

I have a secret for avoiding “cheat days” from your healthy diet. My idea is a bit radical, but here it is:

Reject the concept of “cheat days!”

The phrase comes from diet culture and is infused with guilt. It sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

Let me tell you about a non-cheating experience I had that will illustrate where I’m coming from on this.

I recently attended a special birthday dinner. It was a great celebration of someone that I love. One of the desserts served was cheesecake, which just happens to be my favorite food ever.

As I ate my cheesecake -- enthusiastically and joyfully -- someone who knows that I typically follow a “healthy” diet, commented that I must be having a “cheat day” because I was eating cheesecake. Cue the nails on the chalkboard!

I eat cheesecake a few times a year —  on rare occasions like this special birthday and definitely on my birthday when my daughter bakes one herself. My daughter’s cheesecake is even more delicious than any cheesecake I could find at a restaurant or bakery because hers is infused with love. I felt the love the first few times that it took her to learn and perfect the art of cheesecake baking and I’ve felt it every time since when she makes the effort and chooses to spend her time baking in the kitchen, just to make Mom happy. Nothing -- and I mean absolutely nothing -- beats that secret ingredient.    

So here’s the thing . . . I wasn’t cheating on anything or anyone by eating cheesecake on these special occasions. By the time I arrived at the birthday dinner, I had eaten breakfast and lunch. They were substantial meals full of vegetables and protein and healthy fats. I hadn’t eaten any added sugar in my meals. I was confident in knowing that I filled myself with nutrients at every opportunity that day. When I enjoyed my dessert, I did it with full knowledge that the sugar, dairy and gluten were not supporting my body in any healthful way. But that was ok. The cheesecake nourished my soul and brought me joy. As I ate the cheesecake, I consciously appreciated its appearance, its creaminess, its sweet deliciousness, and the environment in which I was eating it – surrounded by family celebrating a happy moment. It doesn’t get much better than that and that’s why it was worth eating.

Sometimes people think that choosing to eat nutritious, real food (which also happen to be delicious) means you’re always on a “diet” and living a life of deprivation and sacrifice. I disagree completely. I eat large meals that keep me full for hours. I feel deprived when I eat sugary, gluten-filled or highly-processed franken-foods that leave my body uncomfortable and unnourished and move me down the path toward health problems. So I choose to eat real foods that support my body and health. It’s not deprivation or sacrifice, it’s a choice that I readily and willingly make. And when, on occasion, I also choose to eat my favorite dessert, I appreciate it fully and happily remember it later. I am not breaking a “diet.” It involves no guilt. It is not cheating. It is a choice made in the context of a larger choice.

The morning after I ate cheesecake, I got right back to my normal -- eating low sugar, nutritious and delicious real, whole foods. I look forward to having my next cheesecake. And when I do, please, for the love of all that is good, don’t ruin the moment by calling it a “cheat.”