I think this is possible whilst remaining healthy, here's how:
I want to feel great during as much of my life as possible. What I don't want is energy swings, bad digestion, interrupted sleep and low mood.
I know that by eating good food, sleeping well and exercising regularly I will feel as good as I possibly can most of the time. There are times where I don't feel on top form, like every body, but I can promise you that 99% of the time it is as a result of a poor nutrition choice, a bad night's sleep or from having missed training.
The other thing is that after a while, training should become a hobby. Eventually everyone gets in to it. You start to become hungry for more progress. As a result I want to recover from my training as fast as possible. I have no interest in walking around feeling like an 80yr old for 4 days of the week. So, again I know that by eating lots of clean food I will get that.
It's a no brainer isn't it, the food that you really want to eat for long term happiness is the food that makes you feel good most of the time.
But there is an exception.
Every now and again, you will be faced with a situation where you are looking at a slab of chocolate cake (or whatever doesn't make you feel good but tastes lovely) and you will make the decision there and then to have some, even though you know it won't help your long term progress.
Now who exactly are you cheating?
Where in the rules does it say no chocolate cake?
Who's rules say no chocolate cake?
Well I don't follow anyone else's rules, I follow my own rules. I would expect you to do the same. All you can say is that I understand the implications of what I am about to do and weighing up the benefits and the costs of this action I have decided that I am OK with doing it.
It only becomes a cheat meal if you regret it afterwards. That means you let your emotions get the better of you. You let your cravings get the better of you and you made a misinformed choice.
So here I am, staring at that piece of chocolate cake and I think.
- I eat well most of the time so my metabolism will probably deal with this chocolate cake no problem
- I am not on any strict fat loss goal.
- I have eaten enough protein vegetables and fat for the day to make sure my body stays healthy.
- I'm going to really enjoy it.
- I might get a bit of digestive distress, but most likely one piece of cake will go largely unnoticed.
So I say go for it.
And that's it. If you really care about your progress you will say no. For example I will always decline an alcoholic drink if I have trained in the last 24 hours or I plan to in the next 24 hours. Which means that I almost never drink.
I just don't see the point.
So can this apply to physical training?
I apply the same logic...
On average I'll get in 4 sessions per week. However sometimes I just really don't want to do my programme.
You know the days, you're fatigued from previous workouts, stressed from work, you have no energy and you know that if you do your normal routine your going to get about as much out of it as if you didn't do it at all.
Well this happens on occasion, really not very often, maybe once every 6 weeks.
What do I really need to feel good?
What I need is a reduced volume session where I do something which I haven't done in a while and just have some fun.
So I will usually spend a bit of extra time foam rolling and a bit longer on my warm up. After all I need it because I'm hurting.
Then I'll just do some stuff I don't usually do, which makes me happy.
I'll finish with a bit of HIIT training and then that's it.
Some people might say that I am cheating myself and that I should just do it.
But I disagree, occasionally it is a great thing to do something just for the fun of it. Every time I do have a cheat session, the next training session is a million times better because I have given myself some time to recover properly and I actually do better than ever.
We don't need to be 100% strict 100% of the time. You just need to use your brain and make sensible, informed decisions.
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