FOOD FOR THOUGHT…
Thought I’d post something a bit different today. I’m here to ramble on about food psychology. More specifically, my OWN food psychology. It’s just my current take on food and more specifically the once-weekly cheat meal.
First, I’m not about to abandon the cheat meal. I look forward to it too much. And as Tampa-Terry says, it’s part of my program in keeping with the brilliant Metabolism Repair Plan, which, to this point, appears to be going pretty well for me. 
Some swear by a cheat meal as part of their plan, others question their merit. For now, I’m of the former opinion. But I’m not here to talk about whether they’re wrong or right. I’m just here to talk about Saturday night’s cheat meal experience and how it’s changed my perspective on HOW I view the cheat meal and consequently all the food I eat in general.
It’s something I’ve touched on before but not in great detail so I’ll get to the point.
I’ve read that many people on here stick to steak and veggies, rice, pasta etc on their cheat meal, so that they’re still being pretty healthy and not going all out for the really naughty foods.
But Saturday was approaching and I spent the preceding days considering what to have for my cheat meal, something I’d really missed. More than anything else I fancied a burger in a bun (I really miss bread & still haven’t got round to making my muffins), a shake (not the protein variety but a naughty milkshake) and horror of horror… fries.
So off I went with a heavy heart and a guilty conscience to find said burger and fries and shake, and returned home to gorge by big fat fugly face, which incidentally ain’t QUITE so big and fat any more but the fugly bit is debatable!
I’ll cut to the chase. I sat my arse down in front of the television, licked my lips in excited but guilt-ridden anticipation and chowed-down on the naughties.
And did I enjoy every mouthwatering bite of it? DID I F**K! It was bloody minging.
I didn’t eat it all. I even tried feeding some of this shit to my cat.
I need to embellish the story here by telling you she’s an extremely spoiled (but healthy & lean) cat with a discerning palette who likes to lap up milk, cream, custard, egg yolks and is pretty partial to sharing my foods like tuna, chicken, shrimps etc. No, I don’t let her eat from my plate I hasten to add!
But I digress. Back to the burger. She ate the first tiny piece I offered to her. But on the second offering she sniffed at it, sneezed all over my hand and walked off in pure disgust! Pretty smart animal. Smarter than me.
So why was it so bad? Well, first the burger was warm. Barely warm. The fries were cold. But the most important thing was not only did everything taste like shit, it also tasted bizarre. The patty, the bun, the salad, the fries, the shake. All of them tasted chemically if I can try to put it into words, even down to the Heinz Ketchup which I used to swear by that was on the side of my plate!
I know what you’re thinking. I shouldn’t be surprised. Right?
But I WAS surprised, because it all tasted so spectacularly REVOLTING, which to be honest is not strong enough a description. After all, this was food I formerly ate with a passion, it tasted great, I remember it so fondly, yet when I get the opportunity to indulge, it was not only gross but incredibly disappointing. A real waste of a good treat.
So Saturday taught me several very important lessons.
First, it taught me that even though I consider a cheat-meal to be the time to eat naughty-foods like I used to eat; meals packed full of MSG and all kinds of other unholy vile additives, meals that even now I occasionally hanker after, I now realise not only are they pure and utter shit but they TASTE like utter shit. And if I choose to buy and eat them, I WILL be disappointed.
Maybe my tastebuds have become more refined, less prone to being fooled by addictive chemicals. I don’t know, but what I do know now is that foodstuffs like burgers, mass-cooked fries, shakes and even ketchup are really not worth wasting a cheat meal on.
I now realise it’s best to visit a better, eat-in restaurant, go for something slightly less naughty which is packed full of flavour but REAL flavour made with passion by a chef, not some bland shite from a freezer which has been warmed, fried or grilled by one of scores of pimple-faced 13 year old’s in a production line.
Using real flavours is something I’m in the habit of doing for my weekly meals (adding spices, natural juices that are not at all naughty) but up to now my mindset had been to go to the other end of the spectrum on cheat-meal day, to eat unnaturally flavoured things I craved and that I used to eat and miss. But doing so is simply a waste of an opportunity to eat a still carby but tasty meal.
So from this perspective, I’ve seen the light and I’ve realised my cravings are senseless. Cheat-meal day is indulgence day but of the finer things I can’t normally have, not the crap things I can’t normally have.
On Saturday I vowed never to return to waste any more money in any burger place simply because what they sell is pure filth.
What other lessons have I learned? Well, that my new way of being and eating is a LIFESTYLE. I’ve heard it before, I’ve read it before, I’ve said it before but up to this point I haven’t truly realised it before because the cravings have always been there.
But now I see that those foods I once ate and craved are craved only out of HABIT and addiction. Now I know how bad they taste, they should no longer be a habit for me.
So now, to me, a cheat meal is going to be what I fancy, not what I crave, without having to count calories. It’s not about gorging on the ‘illegal’ stuff, its about treating yourself to a meal you wouldn’t have during the week, no counting required, and most importantly it should be a TASTY one. Hell, give me a good restaurant cooked Lasagne or Steak over a putrid burger any day!
I said to the wife after my burger experience, like I was having some kind of epiphany… “you know, before I saw my (weekday) food as not as good as the food as you are allowed to have. But after that burger I’ll appreciate my weekly meals all the more because they really do taste good. They taste real, they taste strong and they really are nicer than processed shit that comes in a packet, a bag or a box”. She thought that was a good way of looking at it.
What else did I learn? Probably my most important take out of all this is that we must find things out for ourselves. It comes back to the food advice you helpful lot have given me, the food psychology advice and how a person new to this healthy way of life should see it not as a diet but as a lifestyle choice.
Don’t get me wrong I couldn’t have done any of this so far without your help and I do take all advice willingly and without prejudice. But some things don’t fully click into place until you experience something for yourself. And as I said before my recent cheat-meal debacle has now made me fully understand I’ve now accepted being and eating healthy is a LIFESTYLE, not a diet. And I know this because I’ve accepted now that burgers and many processed foods are a no-go, not only because they’re bad for us but because they taste so bad!
That said, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to rid myself of the occasional naughty, though it’ll be because I fancy it, not because I crave it. That donut DID taste wonderful and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to completely resist them! But as for burgers, christ, I won’t go near another one with a bargepole. Unless it’s been made by hand, with love, with real ingredients and from a proper restaurant.
As an aside, eating 5 times a day has also helped me rethink the way I eat. There was a time I’d eat huge portions and never stop till it was gone or I couldn’t breathe as my pants were so tight because my stomach was so full. Eating smaller portion sizes now mean I can identify WHEN I’m feeling full and shouldn’t eat any more, and I have the power to stop now because I tell myself (on cheat meal day) ‘I don’t need any more of this, you should stop now’. And I do! I’m sure portion sizes, along with too many Mars Bars and burgers was another contributing factor in my soaring weight.
So, thanks to a truly awful weekend experience, at least it’s given me a positive to take from it.
If anyone out there who is trying to lose weight, is reading this and doesn’t understand what I’m saying, all I can say is this.
Try eating lots of small healthy meals a day, ensure a cheat-meal happens every weekend and use them to eat a few burgers or portions of fish & chips and I reckon in a couple of months you’ll understand exactly where I’m coming from. Until then, you can take my experience as the gospel and try to learn by it. But until you experience it for yourself, you won’t fully understand.
When you do, it’ll be like a breath of fresh air. It was for me.
Bon appetit!