TN50#130, Is Having A Cheat Day an Actual Thing? 04 September 2023
Hi Team,
Have you ever wondered about this thing called a “cheat day”? We hear people talking about it in regards to their diet. I recently had a new client ask me: “Is a cheat day an actual thing?”
My answer was, of course, “Yes, BUT…”
Happy Labor Day and welcome to The Next 50 #130. I like to think of personal performance in 3 components: physical, mental and emotional. My frameworks focus on 4 Buckets: Eat, Sleep, Move and Think. This blog is my sandbox for sharing information that you might find useful for your personal performance.
The first time I heard about the “cheat day” was a reference to Tim Ferriss’s Slow Carb Diet, Rule#5. Here’s a link to a one pager for the whole diet plan I believe this plan was in his book, The Four Hour Chef.
Now for the “BUT”, if you read the last paragraph carefully you may have noticed that I reference a “cheat day” as part of Rule#5, even without clicking on the link to see the whole plan this should have indicated to you that there are at least 4 other rules in play when one is incorporating the “cheat day” as part of their eating plan.
The most important part of incorporating a “cheat day” in your eating plan is the set up and execution of the rest of the plan. Funny, I can think of a lot of systems that work this way. So if you are seriously executing the Slow Carb Diet, or some other system that incorporates a “cheat day” or “cheat meal”; I say rock on! JUST REALIZE, you have to execute the rest of the plan as carefully as you indulge the “cheat day” otherwise you won’t know if that eating plan works for you.
There are a ton of people who would read this far and start jumping up and down about energy balance and insulin resistance and they might be right; if you are one of those people, I’d be happy to continue discussing this short Labor Day post with you, hit me up, alex@fpp.llc.
Here’s the First Principles Performance EAT Strategy, for whatever diet/plan you follow:
- Plenty of Protein
- Good Energy
- No inflammation
- Minimal Hunger
- Improved Body Composition.
For those of you who have been with me for awhile you know that item #1 is a new add. Plenty of Protein, is something I talk about ALL the time so it makes sense to be #1 on my EAT Strategy. If you need my Muscle Math Worksheet, let me know: alex@fpp.llc
As always share the post with your team and anyone who might find it useful and let me know what you think!
Have a good one, Alex
PS. I now have a professional relationship with Thorne, my go to supplement provider. I would love to talk to you about your supplement requirements, how Thorne can meet those needs and the SWEET discount I can provide you as a Thorne Client.
Please reach out: alex@fpp.llc
