When Trick or TREAT Becomes Trick or CHEAT

When trick or TREAT becomes trick or CHEAT
by Iva Young on 10/14/10

When does having a treat become cheating?

Does it have to do with what the food is?

The calorie count?

The amount of carbs?

The amount of sugar?

Does it have to do with your age?

Your health?

Your weight?

How about the frequency with which you "treat" yourself?

Or the amount of food you consider a treat?

Or is it all about perception? What one may perceive as a treat can be seen as a cheat by another. One candy bar, once a week can be a treat, when you are on your fifth candy bar of the day...definitely a cheat. A small bowl of ice cream for dessert at night...a treat; a whole carton of ice cream...a cheat! If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is portion size! The amount of treat you allow yourself and the frequency with which you treat yourself can change your "treat" into a full blown "cheat". The key here is moderation. A little bit of something "naughty" every once in a while is a fine treat, but when you go overboard often, that's just flat out cheating on your health plan. If you feed yourself filling, healthy foods, then having a treat once in a while it is just that - a treat. If you eat empty calories and junk all the time, then you are just cheating yourself out of years of your life, as far as I am concerned.

So, how do we control this urge to CHEAT? One thought is to give yourself permission to cheat once a week. I have a friend who follows a healthy eating plan all week, but allows herself one cheat day to eat whatever it is she is craving. Now that is not to say she goes overboard and eats a whole cake! But she gives herself permission to have that piece of cake that she wants, not just a sliver, but a whole piece - once a week. She finds it is much easier to stay on her eating plan when she knows that in x amount of days; she can have what she is craving.

There is also the school of thought that there is no such thing as "cheating". If you view your way of eating as a healthy lifestyle, and not as a diet, then there is no "cheating". The "cheating" part only matters if you don't go right back to eating healthy. If it kicks you off track and you don't resume your healthy way of eating then you are cheating yourself out of good health. In this case then, I don't think I would call it cheating so much as "falling off the wagon". In this scenario, if you have something you are "not supposed to" then it is just a case of moderation. A little bit of everything, once in a while. A good example of this would be that once a year state fair, you know the one...the one with the deep fried Twinkies. If you indulge in something that is not "of the best nutritional value" at the fair once a year, would you call that a treat or a cheat? Here we go back to the concept of perception. If you are living a healthy lifestyle and you allow yourself a little something yummy once in a while, regardless of its nutrient value, then I would say that you are treating yourself. However, if you are on a "diet" (which is an event, by the way, not a lifetime commitment to health) and you let yourself have that yummy treat at the fair, then you might perceive that as a cheat.

Maybe it's not a matter of perception after all, but a matter of commitment to your health...think about it!