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When I was trying to figure out my theme for this week’s What I Ate Wednesday, I thought back on the idea of “cheat days,” and what I’ve eaten this week. In doing so, I realized there were a lot of sweets, more than my moderate amount. I made lots of cookies, and well, when there’s things around the house, they usually get eaten pretty quickly.

But isn’t that the point of making delicious food? To eat it and share it on an as needed basis – not on just one day of the week?

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The Idea of Cheat Days

If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat (@hurdbird), you may have seen that I took a quick weekend trip to spend some time with my parent’s and celebrate my dad’s birthday! With birthdays come more sweets, at least in my family. And I’m completely okay with that. I was listening to a podcast where a caller talked about not being able to control her cravings during the week, and was trying to save them all for her “cheat day.” And it really sparked this fire in me.

To put it simply, I do not support cheat days, or anything of that idea. I do not think you should “save” your calories or indulgences for a pristine time of the week. See the thing is, we want our bodies to know that we can have something when we want it, rather than punishing ourselves and making ourselves wait – that only makes us crave it more, which can then lead to overeating or bingeing. Our bodies always deserve what we want to feed them when we want it, and we shouldn’t feel we have to restrict it under false pretenses that indulging on one day only will create better habits for us in the long run.

There is no such thing as a cheat day. Again, there is no such thing as a cheat day. There is no such thing as a cheat day.

Our bodies work the same every single day, no matter what we put in them. We have kidneys that work tirelessly to balance our fluids and electrolytes. Our livers will continue to be involved in natural detox mechanisms, and our pancreas will be pumping out insulin when our blood glucose is high (if everything is working properly). Our digestion system is still going to work, day in and day out. Why should our minds work separately from our bodies? We want them to work together because they are better that way.

Every day is an opportunity to live life and fuel ourselves to do so. There is no such thing as “being good” or “cheating” on our diets – we are not one or the other. However, there are such things as choosing less nutrient dense foods and choosing foods that fit our moods and needs at that current time – nothing more, nothing less. Listen to what you need when you’re hungry, make a choice about food, and move on from it. Let’s not put food on a pedestal where we fear it.

How Our Bodies Self-Regulate

I’ve talked about this before in previous posts (here and here) but it’s worth mentioning again – Our bodies are smart, if we let them do their thing.

When we eat a higher quantity of sweeter things than normal, our bodies will scream for more nutrients and fiber to get to homeostasis and make sure we’re getting the nutrients we need. If we try to regulate this by forcing ourselves to eat a certain way on certain days (i.e. – “non-cheat” days), we are disrupting our bodies’ natural regulation system, and messing up our internal cues for appetite and hunger.

And we’re setting ourselves up for failure by creating these restrictions. What happens when friends want to go out and celebrate a new engagement, or cheers to a new job and we’re all splitting fried pickles and champagne? Or, what happens when your neighbor drops by with a cake as a thank you for watching the dog? What happens when you’re stuck at work super late and your coworkers ordered pizza to make the later hours more enjoyable and you told yourself you couldn’t have pizza during the week?

Now, we’re in a position where if we have it and “give in,” we’ve failed. If we tell ourselves that these choices are only available on cheat days, we’re making it really hard to live a life of “non-cheat” days without coloring outside the lines. Why spend the whole week looking forward to a certain meal or treat when you can give yourself permission to have it any day, any time you want.

Your body will tell you what it needs, if you let it. For me, after a day of cookies, it was protein and more veggies.

And splitting a dessert with dad…because it was his birthday…and because it’s good for the soul. This delicious brown sugar coconut slice of pie was a real winner.

Cut yourself a little bit of slack. Eating is not something we should ever feel guilty about. We need to give our bodies what they need, which may vary day to day. Heck, it may even vary hour to hour.

And you may need these any time, any day, not on just one day of the week. So please, please, don’t engage in a “cheat” day mentality. Every day can be a cheat day once we give our bodies permission to eat what we want when we want it.

How do you celebrate birthdays with your friends/families? Do you prefer to make a treat or buy one out?