Cheat Day: Everyone’s Favorite Excuse
I wrote a post about cheat days, which have been around in concept for a long time but suddenly become a trendy diet topic thrown around recently, thanks in part to Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Body book. 
Some people agreed with my points on cheat days, but others were mad at me. They blame me for trying to take away their favorite carb indulgences!
But I have no interest in taking away anything from anyone.
I just want to point out what you are setting yourself up for when you implement cheat days in your diet. Basically, you are setting yourself up for failure.
You know how many cheat days I have in my diet?
I don’t count, because I “cheat” nearly every day!
Rather than “go on a diet”, and attempt to implement a short term solution to getting into shape, consider a lifestyle change that will leave you with more energy, put you in a better mood, and allow you to not even want to feed your body junk for 24 hours! This is not a diet and you won’t have any guilt if you have an unhealthy food item, or even a couple of unhealthy meals.
Your body doesn’t know what day of the week it is!
The idea is to incorporate health into your life permanently. A great way to do this is via the sentence completion plan in the back of our Healthy Mind Fit Body book. The time investment is minimal as compared to how much better you will look and feel! Excuses like cheat days will no longer stop you from getting down to your perfect weight.
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Everyday Paleo Book Review
My copy of Everyday Paleo, by Sarah Fragoso, arrived at the perfect time. I’ve been pretty boring 
lately when it comes to meals. Since I live by myself, I never think to create much of a production when it comes to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. A lot of that is not wanting to spend the time that it takes to cook!
Normally, it’s one of 3 things for each meal. I do enjoy what I eat, but, I also love variety!
So Everyday Paleo was perfect for me, in that it has LOTS of quick, easy, and tasty recipes, and has LOTS of big, colorful pictures!
There are so many things I loved about the book.
First, Sarah gives a quick breakdown of paleo eating, how it has worked for her to transform her own health, and how she has implemented it with her family, particularly with her 3 kids. She covers the challenges of paleo living like school lunches, and eating out- but simplifies it so you are left with no more excuses!
The next section is “Paleo Kitchen Essentials”. I think this is a major reason to get this book! One of my biggest problems with cooking is not having the right kitchen items and getting stuck. This section has pictures and affordable ways to get exactly the equipment you need.
Then a good chuck of the book is the recipes. Breakfast is where I really like variety, so I tried the Egg Cupcakes. It was far easier to make than I thought it would be! I’m still missing some of the equipment I should have had, but, I made it work. I had these things done from start to finish in 25 minutes. They turned out great! Like little quiches.
The recipe pages are color coordinated so you can easily flip to a section. There are even paleo deserts!! Can’t wait to try some of those.
The final two sections are:
-30 day family meal plan with shopping lists (HUGE bonus)
-Workouts
The meal plan with shopping lists make the idea of turning a family paleo a no-brainer. The workouts have amazing picture demonstrations, and show various ways to incorporate your kids into your workouts.
Overall, the book has a simple and happy feel to it. Anyone can do this! If you want the science behind the paleo diet, you’re probably better off with Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solution book. But if you want more of the practical steps and a guide to developing a healthier, happier family and self, Everyday Paleo fits the bill!
Click below to pick up a copy at Amazon.
Do you have to?
Growing up in an authoritarian culture, it is tough to get away from the feeling that you have all these things in life that you “have to” do. I had a discussion with a friend a couple a months ago who I raised this point to, and she came up with a couple of objections:
“I have to pay my rent!”
My answer: “No, you don’t. You can put in a 30-day notice to leave, or you can just not pay. Of course there are consequences to everything. But you have a choice. You can get a cheaper place, or sleep on a friend’s couch, or move back in with your parents….”
The “have to’s” in life typically just stress us out and don’t help us get to our goals. Let’s look at making lifestyle changes.
Let’s say someone smokes & drinks regularly, and is 20 pounds overweight.
They might think to themselves: “I have to get healthy and get in shape!”
So they will proceed to quit smoking, quit alcohol, start exercising, and cut out carbohydrates- all at once! Most people that do this are setting themselves up for failure. Why not tackle one thing at a time? Maybe you feel you have to make all of the above changes to get healthy. But “chunking it down”, as Tony Robbins would say, may be a lot easier than to go cold turkey in all areas at once!
Diet itself is no different. When I first realized I needed to make dietary changes, I knew there were some things I could cut out. I started with 3 things at first: soda, cereal, and pasta. These changes led me to actually WANT to start cutting out more bad carbs and replacing them with healthy protein and fats, because I started associating those carb foods with feeling tired and sluggish, and having a gut. They weren’t serving me, and this became obvious.
One thing at a time seems to work well for a lot of people. What has your experience been with making positive lifestyle changes?
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Honey Nut Cheerios & Health?
The other day, I was chatting with a former investment partner of mine. He’s a brilliant guy and works as a software engineer. He’s made a lot of money in his young life, and moved ahead in his career despite some odds against him.
Towards the end of our conversation, he said he wanted some advice on fitness. He said he wants to start running 3-5 miles a day to lose some weight and get in shape. I mentioned that it’s going to be more about diet & nutrition than how much exercise he can squeeze in.
So he says: “Well, I try to eat pretty healthy.”
I ask: “What kinds of things do you eat?”
And he replies: “I usually start out the day with a bowl of Honey-Nut Cheerios…do you think that’s good?”
Let’s look at why he would think this is a healthy way to eat. Here are the claims Cheerios makes on their site, and my debunking comments:
“13 Vitamins & Minerals
Contains “good source” (at least 10% of the Daily Value per serving) of the number of vitamins & minerals indicated.”
Wow! 10%! Seriously? I can’t even believe they are bragging about this!
“Low fat
Contains 3 grams or less of fat per serving or per 50 grams if serving size is 30 grams or less.”
Why is low fat a good thing? Oh, because this USRDA says so! Sorry, this is yet another strike against Cheerios.
“Good source of calcium
Contains at least 10% of the Daily Value of calcium per serving.”
Another whopping 10%. And why is getting this calcium good in the first place? We should be more focused on a balanced magnesium/calcium ratio instead of just looking at one side of the equation.
“Made with whole grain
Contains at least 8 grams of whole grain per serving. U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend eating at least 48 grams of whole grain per day.”
Oh boy, WHOLE grains! There’s that all-knowing USRDA again, giving out horrible advice that will go further in making us sick than healthy!
“Helps reduce the risk of heart disease
Product may reduce the risk of heart disease as part of a heart-healthy diet.”
The key where they cover their asses is that last part of the statement “..as part of a heart-healthy diet.” And it MAY help. No studies showing this to be true. Deceptive claim at the least!
“Can help lower cholesterol*
Product can help lower cholesterol as part of a heart-healthy diet.
”
Same as above. Can it? Or not? And which kind of cholesterol is it lowering?
“Excellent source of iron
Contains at least 20% of the Daily Value of iron per serving.”
Let’s see, where else can we get far more iron per serving. Meat! No need for processed crap if you are after iron.
Well I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, Cheerios are simply fake food, and not meant for human consumption. It’s too bad that so many people fall for this idea that because something has the American Heart Association’s stamp of approval and the full endorsement of the government that it must be good!
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Simple eating
After our interview with Sarah Fragoso, I started thinking about cooking, how little of it I do, and the challenges of being single and making meals for just yourself!
I don’t like to get elaborate with my meals. In fact, I keep it incredibly simple, yet, healthy and tasty. Here’s an example of a typical lunch I have:
-Cook up some ground beef on the stove (or take out leftovers from the night before).
-Add a spice to the meat (like cumin!)
-Pour some mixed frozen veggies into a bowl
-Microwave them for 1:30
-Add some olive oil
-Cut up an avocado, add about half to the bowl of veggies
-Add 1/2-3/4 pound of the cooked meat into the bowl
Enjoy!
I do several variations of this. Sometimes I will use guacamole, olives, or cheese in place of the avocado (or in addition to!). Sometimes I will do turkey, fish, or even canned tuna (in that case I need pickle relish, not paleo but necessary to me!). Also, when I use meat, I will sometimes add spaghetti sauce as well (always opting for the lower sugar content in the sauce, preferably no sugar added).
Oddly, I never get tired of this meal. With the variations, I can go through a week of eating lunch and dinner in, and never have the same meal twice! I know I can get much more creative, but many nights it seems there isn’t much time to slave over a stove- and I know I can easily get healthy, tasty nutrition quickly with one of my standards.
So the recipes such as the ones on everydaypaleo.com are great & not hard, but keep in mind you can not cook much at all and still get to your perfect body!
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