Nutrition Hacks - Daily "Cheat Meal"

Nutrition is always the most important thing when it comes to bodybuilding and physique transformation. I'll always come back to that concept and make sure that my readers always know what my stance is on that topic. Unlike those who train for sports to become stronger or more proficient at some skill set or ability, those interested in changing their physique aesthetic should never be led to believe that the gym is where you make your gains and set yourself up for success. Bodybuilding and physique transformation is almost enitirely a result of what you do OUTSIDE the gym.

For those of you who understand that, you also realize how much harder it is to commit to nutrition than anything else as you strive towards your goals in fitness. A workout can last 45 minutes - 2 hours or so and it's finished, but nutrition is ALWAYS with you. As human beings, our bodies have evolved a propensity to store as much energy as possible. Your mind will literally do anything it can to make you consume as many calories as possible, and try its best to completely shut you down and make you feel awful when it feels like you are in any way trying to use up calories or trying not to consume them. 



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As you diet throughout the week, things might be going easy the first couple of days since the last time you took it easy on your diet or had a "cheat meal" (a meal you ate due to taste / for pleasure rather than for efficiency in macros). But, as you go further and further from that meal, you start to feel worse and worse as your body becomes deprived of tasty, high caloric foods that you have grown to love depending on how clean your diet is. And while some may be experienced enough with dieting that they can handle a mostly clean diet and the psychological hurdles they have to overcome in eating that way, many people find it hard to eat almost completely clean or have a super strict diet. Those who dive right into a clean diet or diet so hard that their body is screaming for a little bit of leeway will also often times find themselves caving into the pressure and binge-eat.    

             

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But I'm here to once again offer advice on how to prevent this from happening. As a continuation of my "nutrition hacks" series, I'd like to offer more of these hacks that have helped me stick to a mostly clean diet over the years and have given me success with my aesthetic. And for today's post, I'd like to discuss the nutritional hack of daily cheat meals.

 

If you're new to the dieting game, be sure to check out my first nutritional hack post located here. It's a really good technique to use, especially to help make sure you don't crash or binge eat / give up too early into whichever dieting lifestyle you want to have. Using the concepts outlined in that post are good to pair up with the concept I'm about to describe.

 

If you bodybuild, or are interested in bodybuilding, chances are you will at some point come across the concept of "cheat meals". Cheat meals are simply meals that are eaten for pleasure and not because they are macronutrient efficient or important to maximizing your aesthetic and making gains. It's a meal that could break your diet or slow your progress, but eaten to satisfy cravings.

 

  

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While some of those in the bodybuilding community will suggest having a cheat meal for one day every couple of weeks, to one day out of the week, to multiple days out of the week, I offer another suggestion. And that is to have a small cheat meal every day.

 

I'm hesitant to use the word "meal" in this nutritional hack, because it's not necessarily a meal. Rather, I suggest having a small......something......every day that you can look forward to and plan into your diet. The benefits of doing this, in my opinion, are as follows:

 

 

1) Eating something you enjoy every day keeps you from losing your mind and building up huge cravings that could potentially lead to binge-eating and destroy your dietary progress

2) Planning a small cheat meal meal makes you feel less guilt, as you planned for it, and therefore makes you less inclined to quit on your diet or believe that you screwed everything up to the point that it's not worth continuing to diet hard


For the majority of my bodybuilding career, up to a year ago or so, I would make a point of having a large half-sweet tea and a cinnamon-raisin bagel with peanut butter from Dunkin Donuts every day. Now, this of course wasn't the best option for a solid meal plan. However, it kept the cravings I had at bay, while not necessarily COMPLETELY destroying my nutrition. It kept my mind focused and fresh, and allowed me to have somewhat of a mental / nutritional "rest" before continuing to diet hard, clean, and well for the rest of the day. I also tried to incorporate SOME kind of nutritional gain in this meal by getting some healthy fats and protein from the peanut butter at the same time.



LIQUID GOLD
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Your daily cheat meal can be anything. If you like sweet foods, have ONE donut, or ONE brownie a day. If you like salty foods, have one of those small bags of potato chips every day. It can be anything you enjoy. Just make sure the portion size is modest.

It's also important to suggest that your daily cheat meal be at the time of day you think you'll need it the most. If you get your cravings early on in the day, have it earlier. If you get your cravings later, have it later. If you want your mind to be mentally prepared and fresh for a workout, have it before a workout. Be strategic with it.

While it's cool to make everyone think you're some kind of inhuman beast who can eat nothing but cardboard made out of whey protein for every meal every day until eternity, at the end of the day we're all still human. I don't believe in the whole "eat in moderation" b.s. that people keep trying to sell me (if you want to look extreme, you have to do extreme things), but I don't believe a natural bodybuilder needs to eat 100% clean 100% of the time. I think that sprinkling in some foods that you enjoy of moderate portion size can be very beneficial to your success. While bodybuilding to me will always be considered serious business, it's ok to have fun every once in a while and enjoy life within your lifestyle.

So find a small cheat meal you can enjoy every day and feel good about eating it. Hack your nutrition to keep yourself steadfast on your road to aesthetic success! Dominate that nutrition!

-Jtrain


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