Even I Have A Cheat Day

Last year, I had sent out a newsletter that gave a glimpse into a cheat day for me. In case you aren't familiar with the concept, I discuss with my clients having one cheat day where they can eat anything they want. The theory is that it will help keep my client's sanity, plus if you are eating healthy the other 6 days of the week, then one cheat day isn't going to blow your weight loss program to bits.

So here is my cheat day this past Saturday. I will comment on it at the end:

• 6:45am - I had a bowl of Raisin Bran and some orange juice before I went to train one of my star clients, Catherine Adams, owner of Caterina Ltd. in German Village. You should check it out.

• It was OSU game day so I went down to the stadium to tailgate. I arrived at one tailgate around 10:15am and had a egg and bacon bagel sandwich. It was pretty good.

• 10:45am - I arrived at Columbus Academy's tailgate (my old high school) and had another bagel with some hazelnut cream cheese on it and a bottled water.

• 11:30am - I visited the tailgate of another star client, Kathy Manner and her company the Hylant Group. Interestingly enough, I had given a speaking at their company in August about nutrition and eating healthy. So, to celebrate their tailgate I ate 2 bratwursts with ketchup and mustard and another bottled water. This was to give them examples of how to eat unhealthy if you ate this way everyday (sarcasm). My goal at this point was to fill me up so I wouldn't have to shell out a mortgage payment paying for food at the game.

• 3:30pm - The game was a blowout as OSU was crushing my alma mater Indiana, so my buddy and I went back to his original tailgate. There, I replenished my energy with two servings of a pasta salad, complete with some veggies, pepperoni, and some cheese blocks (I don't care much for those). I had some baked wheat thins, plus two slices of coffee cake left over from the morning. I washed that down with some Coke free diet zero something or other. I don't drink pop much.

• 5:30pm - I arrived back at my house to wash up for my 20th high school reunion shindig and threw a couple of handfuls of almonds in my mouth plus a bottle of propel.

• 6:00pm - 9:30pm - Throughout the evening reminiscing with classmates, as I was telling them I was in the fitness industry still, I was feeding my pie hole with 2 more brats, a decorative cookie with our grad year on it, and about 4 of these great lemon squares. I then had a couple glasses of apple cider as well.

A couple comments about my cheat day. I love good, grilled brats. Also, I eat a lot throughout the day anyways. I burn a lot of calories daily so to keep my energy up I have to eat a lot of food. So, this might seem like a lot, but I don't eat just to eat, I eat because my body was craving calories and I needed to satisfy those cravings.

The biggest point though, is I can eat this way because I have EARNED it. My other days, I definitely do not eat like this. I exercise and keep my health in check, so when I have a cheat day such as this, it doesn't affect my body at all. My body can handle this because it isn't a daily occurrence and your body can handle these days as well, if you do the things you need to do on the other days.

So, as the holidays start to come upon us, don't freak out about holiday parties or the Thanksgiving day massacre. You can enjoy those eatings and gatherings as long as you are doing what you need to do on the other days. Exercising and eating right. You do that then you can handle cheat days, not necessarily like mine, but your own version of a cheat day.