Treat Days & Why I Recommend Them - Day 7/90

Cheat Day? See ya! Its new name is treat day. You should never feel guilty for eating something that isn’t a part of your diet. In fact, including these treats in your diet gives you a higher likelihood of achieving success.

Earlier this week, I found myself craving chips and fries. If you don’t know by now, potatoes are 100% my not-so-guilty pleasure in any and every form. During the craving, I found myself questioning, “How the heck am I going to make it through 90 days without eating a single treat?” That’s when it hit me.
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This customized meal plan that I’ve developed for myself and my body is great to follow 80% of the time, but there is no way I will make it through all 90 days eating nothing but my paleo-based meals if I don’t give myself a regularly scheduled break every once in a while. I decided that weekends would be my time to eat whatever I feel like! Not every meal, of course, but I won’t turn down some fries or a donut if I want ‘em! 

Here’s the funny thing, and I want to be candid with you. I went into today with that mindset and started my day off with this bag of gluten free cookie crisps. Now, don’t get me wrong - these are delicious, but after eating just 3, I genuinely didn’t want to eat any more, and they actually didn’t sit too well with me either. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the best idea to start my day with cookies, but my body was telling me that it wanted fruits and veggies, like a smoothie bowl or green juice. So, I listened and that’s what I gave her. I grabbed a Suja green juice from Whole Foods and an EPIC Beef Bar for a lunch snack. To be honest, I was kind of confused because I really intended on this being my treat day! Nonetheless, this was a good time to try some things out and see what my body likes in terms of balance.

Around dinner time, I decided I wanted to eat some pasta that I normally wouldn’t eat during the week. So for dinner, I made my favorite gluten free chickpea pasta with tons of veggies (broccoli, onions, and tomatoes), half of an avocado, coconut oil, garlic, and Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel seasoning - I literally put that on everything ;) This meal was delicious by the way. I followed dinner with these Perfect Snacks Peanut Butter Cups from Whole Foods for a little chocolate dessert and, of course, some dried mangoes. Now this felt good and made my body happy!

It’s all about balance. You should NEVER feel bad or guilty about eating any type of food, and you should never shame yourself if you eat something outside of the diet you promised yourself you would follow for x amount of time. You just need to listen to your body. I know it’s easier said than done, but here are a few ways to make sure these bad feelings don’t happen when you might slip up:

1. Schedule treat meals or days into your diet. 
2. When you want something outside of your diet, hold off until your treat day and tell yourself that this is part of your diet… because it is!
3. View these treats as a reward for all of your hard work! 

Sticking to your goal is important because it’s a commitment to yourself. If you want to achieve it, you need to make the process maintainable and sustainable. By never allowing yourself to have treats during your process, you have a much higher chance of bingeing later and feeling really guilty about it. These feelings could throw you completely off track, and maybe even cause you to quit. However, if you schedule your treat days, you’ll know that you are still on track and you will still feel great the next day because you were sticking to your plan. Additionally, as you read with my cookie experience, you and your body might not even want the treats! Listen to your body and fulfill your soul, treats or otherwise.

One or two days/meals a week of eating treats will not throw you off of your plan, but giving up and feeling guilty will. Give yourself some grace. Sticking to any plan can be tough, but with this tip alone, you have a much higher likelihood of getting where you want to be and feeling proud the whole way. You’ve got this!

Thank you for being you & thank you for being here,
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Leah Jean