As you know, I think diets are prone to failure, which is why my "Eat Heat" plan
is not a diet, but a lifestyle change. I have to chuckle every time I hear someone say "I'm on a diet, but <insert day> is my cheat day" or I'll eat whatever I want at this meal because I'll cheat this time. Let me preface what I'm about to say with a statement of encouragement: if you're losing weight or maintaining weight loss on a plan like this, by all means keep it up. It obviously works for you. However, my experience has been that one cheat day leads to another or the fact that you have cheat days indicates the underlying problem of what lead you to gain weight in the first place hasn't been sufficiently addressed.
In my plan, you can "cheat" anytime you want. I put "cheat" in quotes because my definition of cheating and what others on diets refer to as cheating are two very different things. In my book, cheating is when you eat something that you know is unhealthy and high in calories. It is a single event and not a chain of events throughout a day. On my plan, I eat something spicy with the meal so I'm not hungry in a couple of hours. I also eat in moderation and I exercise at some point during the day to get rid of a good portion of those calories. The net calorie gain over a typical day is minimal. In contrast, typical diet cheat days involve disregarding your diet habits and reverting to what got you to gain weight in the first place.
Case in point: today. I ate lunch at Sonic. I probably consumed close to 1000 calories. This is double my typical caloric intake at lunch. I ate a Chicago dog with my meal, which had "heat" from the sport peppers on it. To counteract what I ate, I did a half hour session on the elliptical (on an off day - I typically do intense workouts on Sun, Tues, and Thurs) to burn about 500 calories. Then I went to the park and played with my son for about an hour, which burned another couple hundred calories. By taking corrective action immediately to counter unhealthy eating, you don't build up excess calories and you get in the habit of taking action. It also makes you think a lot more carefully about what you eat.
By the way, in about 5 months on my plan, I've lost between 30-40 pounds (I don't weigh myself) and am down two whole pant sizes. I have almost completely replaced my wardrobe and look forward to doing it again in the next year.
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