Whatever works for you but I, personally, never take "cheat days". First off, I don't even think of overeating or eating a lot of processed garbage (most restaurant food) as exactly "cheats". To me, they are what they truly are, eating garbage for one day. I don't like intaking garbage fuel, not even for one day. I don't want my body burning pollution or coming out of homeostasis. It's just not worth it to me. Besides, once you get into the mentality of "its just one cheat day" or "this is only a one time thing", those opportunities occur more and more often. Think about it, there is ALWAYS an excuse in this country to stuff yourself uncontrollably. Its always someone's birthday, somewhere. Graduations, congratulations, weddings, anniversaries, accomplishments, good news, Fridays, etc. Its a never ending plethora of junk food.
I've gotten out of the mentality of "celebrating" with food for a while now. Foods sole purpose is to energize and nutrify your body. It should never be a source of entertainment especially when there are so many other things to entertain yourself with, like money, activities, gifts, trips or a even a simple walk in the park during twilight. When I pushed my plate away, an entire world opened in front of me that I haven't even noticed before.
Situations do come up. I recently was invited to attend an anniversary party and I did but I brought my own food, to share with others, and mostly ate that because I knew that was prepared properly. Other than my own food, I ate nuts, which were all over the place and thank goodness someone brought a raw veggie plate. I skipped the dipping sauce. When they served cake, I said no. Sometimes saying NO to others, is the most liberating thing you can do. The no was to help myself not to save face for others. At the end of the day when I struggling with massive health problems, everyone else was living their life and I was the one suffering. So whenever I can do something for myself, I do it.
When it was husband's birthday and my best friend wanted to bring a cake, I told her not to bother. Her visit was appreciated more than anything she can bring. So she kept the cake and brought herself instead. We went to the movies. No popcorn for me, coconut chips instead.
Basically, this is all a lifestyle change. I don't live my life around food anymore because my life is no longer empty.
But, if your just concerned with weight gain, no, you can't gain weight from one day of eating like there's no tomorrow. Weight gain happens from a consistant and persistant onslaught of high energy dense, polluting foods.
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