“Cheat” Meal, “Treat” Meal...or just another meal?  In this episode, I’m discussing the difference between a cheat meal and a treat meal and how it can affect different people in different ways.  When we hear the word “CHEAT” meal we think of it like this:  Cheating within a diet plan involves giving yourself calculated, planned permission to temporarily break strict diet rules. We are “allowing” ourselves to “cheat” on the plan..but in some cases, which I hear often with my clients, we “fall off the wagon’ and a cheat meal turns into a cheat day, or week.  While the cheat meal approach may work for some people, it could also have some potentially detrimental effects.  The word “cheat” has a culturally negative connotation and is associated with feelings of guilt. Using that term to describe a food or meal could impair your ability to maintain self-control even within the cheat meal framework. While a “Treat” may seem a bit more positive, in some minds it’s still one in the same..a planned “permission slip” to eat outside the rules.  “Treat” meals still imply that some foods are good and some are bad. Of course, some foods are more nutritionally dense than others BUT no one food is “Bad”..it really just comes down to how much and how often you eat it.  So for some, BOTH of these “cheat” or “treat” can cause anxiety about whether or not they are “Getting it right” and not going overboard or “Falling off the wagon”.    How about just a regular old day of eating? Keep in mind this stuff is not a one size fits all and if you seem to keep “falling off the wagon” or your treat/cheat days turn into treat/cheat weeks...then this is not something you want to keep doing over and over again for the rest of your life.  Let’s dive in to the rest of the cheat/treat debate here. Shall we?