Tip: Cheat Meals – A Rant

When do you get a cheat meal when dieting? When you deserve one. And you probably don't deserve one yet. Here's why.

"When Do I Get a Cheat Meal?"

I can't explain to you in words how much this annoys me. But I'll try.

Imagine someone trying to make a college football team, and upon having their first talk with the coach the player asks, "How much Gatorade will I get to drink?" With that attitude, you can drink as much as you want... down at the 7-Eleven.

One of the most difficult tasks for people to do is undo the bad habits that caused their crappy body composition in the first place.

For real, you've had countless years of putting away all the Oreos and cheesecake and Chipotle your heart desires. And the one question you have, when you finally come to a place where getting on the scale frightens you, is when you can eat more of that stuff? Do you believe your mind is truly ready to undo the 10-mile walk you've made into the land of "10 pounds of crap stuffed into a 5-pound bag?"

You've heard that expression before: If you walk 10 miles into the woods, you gotta walk 10 miles to get back out. What took you that 10 miles deep to begin with? Poor habits, bad choices, emotional eating, bulking when you're a 38 year old man and weren't lean to begin with... there's a litany of reasons. All of which are on you to undo.

And there's the 10-mile walk back out. You don't need a cheat meal to fix the problem. And no, you don't "deserve" one for that 30 minute treadmill walk. You don't "deserve" one for going six whole days without eating like a jackass either.

If you really don't care about changing how you look and feel, then by all means continue power-shoveling all the hyper-palatable foods you've been eating. But don't ask about cheat meals or complain about how you hate how you look if you're not willing to make a choice to change those dynamics at the dinner table.

Rant over.