When Is The BEST Time To Have A CHEAT Meal?

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. When you are going in to having this type of approach or methodology into your fitness journey, the right mindset is so important to have.

00:35It's so needed. One, you need to remember that one day of indulgence won't completely derail your progress. It's about you, you know, psychologically relieving the protocols of your day-to-day with nutrition, about the balance, about the moderation, and then what I said earlier, the long-term goal that you are going for. Yo, yo, yo, yo. What is going on, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikki Stott, co-founder of Warrior Babe.

01:09And on this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikki Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode 162, where we're going to dive into a topic that has been asked a bunch in the past. Whenever I do like those little Q&A dumps on my Instagram story, asking you guys to drop topics you guys would want to learn or questions,

01:42that I'm able to dive in deeper here on this podcast and elaborate and explain and share all the insights and information and knowledge and science and things like that. And this specific topic has been asked a lot, and I want to be able to lend space to today's episode to dive into this specific topic. And I think some of you guys will appreciate this topic. I don't know how many of you guys actually, like, follow what I'm going to talk about today, if you implement them, if you do not, if you've never even heard of them, if you have heard of them, but you don't know how to implement them.

02:20If you, you know, are wondering why they're even a thing, that's what I want to talk about today. That being, well, people call them cheat meals. I don't know, you know, mentally cheat meals can make a lot of people feel like they're cheating on themselves and their goals. I forever have called them a cheat meal. I don't, I don't, I don't mentally associate them like that, though. I just like, you know, it comes to, it's like, people call them cheat meals, people call them treat meals, people call them refeed days, people call them untracked days.

02:57You know, whatever have you, whatever is psychologically going to make you understand that it's nothing bad. And it's like, essentially, like, actually, like, a really good thing to be implementing into your, like, strategy day to day or week to week or, you know, month to month or, you know, along your fitness journey, essentially, is what I'm trying to say. It's a good strategy to implement in your fitness journey. And you can do this week by week or whatever it's deemed necessary.

03:28Honestly, like, this entire topic, it can be, I'm going to try and talk to it broadly here with you guys. Like, I'm going to, you know, how do you prepare for them? You know, what's the right mindset around them? How should you implement them? How often? What's the science behind them? We're going to cover it all today and more in this episode. And really put a special focus on how these days can really ultimately help you get the results of which we like to talk about on this podcast, which is building more muscle, being more toned, losing more body fat.

03:59They can really benefit you in that regard. However, like I just said, I'm going to keep it kind of broad. But individually speaking, I wouldn't necessarily give everybody a cheat or a treat or a refeed. For the purpose of this podcast, I'm going to call it a cheat day, okay? Because that's what I've called it for my entire freaking journey. But again, for purpose, psychological, like, components of attaching words to it, you can call whatever you want. But they all serve the same purpose. So, I wouldn't necessarily give everybody a cheat.

04:29Like, okay, if you have, like, 100 pounds to lose or, like, 200 pounds to lose or, like, 75 pounds to lose, like, you know, saying this with love, you have been cheating all of the days up until you decided to make a change for yourself. So, there's no necessary, you know, you need to deploy on some discipline. You need to deploy on, you know, following a routine that is different than the routine that you have been following. Because if you've been following a certain type of routine that has led you to where you are, where you're 75 pounds or 100 pounds or 150 pounds overweight, then, like, implementing these on a weekly basis can kind of psychologically reinforce those habits that you've been trying to get away from.

05:08So, that's individually speaking. Like, I wouldn't necessarily, depending on where you are in your journey, give every single buddy a cheat day on a weekly basis. Um, so, essentially talking to that and then segueing into let's just first, like, understand what on track or cheat days or refeed days or treat days. I mean, if you want to really narrow it down into, like, a cheat day, I would have a different strategy than I would have for a refeed day. I'll talk about that in a little bit.

05:38Um, but essentially what these allow you to do is eat outside of your macro, if you're following macronutrients, if you're following like a daily protocol with your nutrition, it essentially allows you to eat outside of your usual said, uh, targets for the day. And this can be a great way to relieve a couple of things, right? Relieve the psychological pressure of tracking every single day with macronutrients or following a specific protocol every single day.

06:10Um, however, outside of that, it also relieves like you being able to, I don't know, it's, this is why, like, when I track macronutrients, I allow myself to have the food that I enjoy on a regular basis, but I have the ability to discipline myself in the fact that I'm not going to eat an entire bag of chocolate. I'm only going to have two to three, two to three or four pieces, what I'm allotted for for the day. Where others need to develop the discipline of not being, not eating an entire bag of chocolate. So maybe fitting them into their macros, it doesn't a lot for it.

06:42So maybe you have to eliminate that type of food for a little bit to develop a little bit more discipline around it. And then on your cheat days or on, on refeed days or whatever cheat days is what I said I was going to call it. But I, there's like two different strategies. I would go to the two. So I'm kind of tiling back and forth between them. Um, but you know, maybe on those days you allow yourself to have a little bit of the foods that you're trying to create boundaries around. I wouldn't necessarily say you are restricting them or eliminating them or whatever. You are trying to just develop habits around them and develop discipline around them and develop boundaries around wanting to splurge on eating an entire bag of chocolates.

07:19Right? So those are a couple of the components like psychologically, the pressures of these things, you know, it allows you to deviate from your normal limits and allows you to bring in foods that like you are putting to the side for a little bit to develop discipline around, bring it back in for a little bit. And then you're satisfied for that day. Right? So with that being said, it's also crucial to have the right mindset going into it. Right? And I want to talk about that in a little bit in the podcast, because when you have the right mindset going into it, you will avoid common pitfalls.

07:54A lot of people find themselves in when they are in a cheat day. And then the next day turns into a cheat day and the next thing turns into a cheat day. So I kind of want to like talk about the pitfalls to be able to avoid when you're in those situations. But for the majority of like what I'm going to spend a little bit here in the next couple minutes talking about the science behind these, because for those of you guys who are focused on building more muscle, right? Having a more toned body, wanting more strength inside of your workouts. These specific types of days serve a huge purpose in helping you to boost your metabolism and replenish glycogen stores that you may be a bit depleted on on a regular day-to-day basis.

08:37Right? Maybe your carbs are limited to like, I don't know, 160 grams of carbs. Well, you know, maybe that's helping you to feel the results that you want. But then, bam, you throw in like a – this is completely different than carb cycling. I'm not a big fan of carb cycling. I'm a big fan of keeping things like silly, stupid, simple to follow. So, and carb cycling involves you going up and down and high and low days and this day is a high day and this day is a low day and on this day I have a high day.

09:08It's like every single day is different. It works for some people. There's tons of tactics that work for everybody. And, you know, there's tactics that work for specific people that I wouldn't – I'm not a big fan of because I would normally just eat the same thing every single day. And then, bam, what I like to do with refeeds or cheat meals is throw them in and kind of like trick my body like you guys trick your muscles when you're changing out workout programming on a, you know, six-week or eight-week block. Same kind of purpose is being served here, only you're tricking and boosting your metabolism and you're replenishing said glycogen stores that you may have already worked through on a day-to-day basis with your training and your activity style and the way you're, you know, maybe in a deficit to lose body fat.

09:51This all serves a purpose but then so do cheat meals. They serve a purpose to replenish those stores, to give you more energy, to go in on a strong day for lifting and feel strong and then to boost your metabolism. I can speak wholeheartedly to this methodology because for the longest time I did cheat meals. For the longest time I did refeeds. Now I just kind of like intuitively eat where I don't feel like, like I can throw that in there every now and then but I used to be on a routine and what we put our clients on when they're learning these types of strategies and implementing them into their day-to-day.

10:30It was always routine. And even I apply it to my clients who we took it out for a little bit and then they feel like they're kind of burnt out. Well, then I will implement it on a weekly basis again and then lower their normal daily macronutrient goals. So there's so many ways and strategies you could implement these types of things. But for the most part, like high-level thinking, I want you guys to just know how it really serves a purpose. Like after what I was trying to get there is like after when I noticed I had a cheat day, the next day I would step on the scale.

11:02I'm not saying the scale is everything, but I would notice that you would either stay the same or I'd be lower because I boosted my metabolism. And I crushed like a leg day on the same day, which is a part of the tactic that I had a cheat day. So a couple of things. First thing that I want to dive into is just the science behind the refeeds and the cheat days. Actually, it's first before I dive into the science. Actually, let's dive into the science and I'll talk about the tactics. When we talk about, you know, building and toning and decreasing body fats, your body needs appropriate and adequate.

11:35You guys know this. Like some of you guys who have not been eating enough, you start to eat more and you're like, oh my God, I'm seeing results that I haven't seen in years because you were eating less food that your body like was you were fighting an uphill battle. Your body needs adequate fuel to perform and to recover from strength training and to give you that result of building more tone and decreasing your body fat. And so what cheat meal days do is I kind of talked on it a little bit there for a second. There's three specific things.

12:05It does glycogen replenishment. It does it benefits your hormones and then it gives you the psychological relief. But most importantly, the glycogen replenishment is the fact that when you are day to day or like five days a week, whatever your normal strength training protocol is day to day, you're doing intense workouts, right? You're doing strength training and your muscle uses the glycogen for energy. I've talked about this tons and times and times before about what carbs do, how they break down to glycogen, how those carbs are used to make you Super Mario Brother and turn into a powerhouse when you're doing strength training.

12:40And your muscles are using that energy, that glycogen for energy during that strength training workout. So what cheat days specifically do, particularly those that, you know, on a cheat day, it's like there's a couple of different strategies. What I used to do for, I said I was going to talk about strategy in a little bit. I'll talk about strategy in a minute. Let me just finish out the science. What those particularly are and consist of is you are having a higher carbohydrate day and a higher fat day. And your protein is essentially like around normal.

13:13Maybe it's a little bit more because said cheat meal, maybe like a burger or a steak dinner or something like that is consisting of having a high protein. But typically, particularly, those days consist of and even refeeds consist of higher fats and higher carbohydrates. Being that, the higher carbohydrates, that is what replenishes those glycogen stores. And that is what provides your muscles with the energy that they need for optimal performance and optimal recovery. On a normal day-to-day, when you're going in to do strength training and you have a set allotment for carbohydrates, you are tanking your glycogen stores.

13:49Which is good because your body is going to fuel for other energy sources for burning fat. But you need the carbohydrates for strength training. You need your carbohydrates to get you through the workout. And then when you have, so your glycogen is most likely, I mean, you know, we have reserves. But think about it that your glycogen level is like lowering, right? It's helping you to perform and helping you get the results. And then, bam, you throw it a cheat meal a day, which has tons of carbohydrates. And you're replenishing that glycogen store. So when you come out of a cheat meal, you feel like the absolute she-hulk wanting to go crush a leg day.

14:25Or, you know, you had a leg day and then you go and have a cheat meal. And then maybe the next day is a back day. And you crush a back day, right? There's strategies to it, for sure. I'm going to talk about that. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you.

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15:27That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. The second one is the hormonal benefits. So going extended periods of time in a calorie restriction, right? Most of you guys want to be toned and want to lose fat. And so you're putting yourself in specific deficits on a daily basis. And when you do that consistently over extended periods of time, you, that restriction can lead to a decrease in your appetite.

16:00And the hormone that regulates that, which is your leptin, it decreases and it makes you, it regulates your hunger and your metabolism. So it leads to a decrease in leptin. So it leads into you not feeling like you are hungry. Your metabolism slows down a little bit. And what a cheat meal can do is it temporarily boosts that leptin level and it helps to rev up your metabolism and support muscle growth.

16:30So all in all to say, if you have been in an extended deficit for a period of time where you're only eating like 1100 calories or you're not eating enough food and you're wanting said result of building more muscle and getting toned, you're fighting an uphill battle because what's happening here is extended periods of time and a calorie restriction is leading to the decrease in your leptin stores. And that hormone is what regulates your hunger and regulates your metabolism. And if it's decreased, it's not serving you the purpose of the results that you want.

17:02So when you feed yourself, this is what a lot of people notice when they start eating more, is that it boosts the leptin back up and it starts revving your metabolism and you start getting the results that you want. Well, think of like a cheat meal doing that on a weekly basis. You're in a deficit. You give your body a cheat meal and then all of the internal things are happy with your hormones. Leptin is very, very happy and it's working for you instead of against you. And it starts boosting things, right? It starts doing even more of what you want it to do.

17:35This is what, yeah, I can't stress this concept enough because I mean, again, like if you're not eating enough, but you want muscle, you're just, you're not doing the things that you need to do in order to get said result. So you really like, I know a lot of people think you got to, like we hear you got to eat more, you got to eat more, but so many people worry about getting fat. You're not going to get fat. I always joke around about this. Like people that come into Warrior Babe that work with our coaches, even anybody that has worked with me previously, and I think about I need to eat more food or Nikki said this or my coach said that I need to eat more food.

18:07I don't want to get fat. Dude, it is not our job to get you guys fat. It is our job to do the exact opposite. We aren't hired or we aren't in the space or we aren't the professionals in the fitness arena to get people fat. We're in the space to help you guys get the results that you want. And these are the strategies that will help you to do that. Okay. So when people start eating more, just not even, even aside from the cheat meals,

18:40they start eating more and then they start seeing the results. It's because exactly what I just talked about. You're in a calorie restriction for so freaking long. You're wondering why you're not getting results. You're bashing help against the wall. Oh, it's because all of this hormone has decreased. The things inside are decreased. Like things I'm, you know, I'm storing more fat because I'm stressed and my body's not getting what it needs to function optimally. But then I actually feed it more. And then all of these incredible things start happening. The hormones go up.

19:10The stress goes down. I feel much better. My mood's elevated. My mood's increased. I'm sleeping better. And then you get the results that you want. Hey, hey. Just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it. And there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And also, it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show. Okay. Last one is what a cheat meal can do as a psychological relief.

19:41As I talked a little bit at the beginning of the podcast. But mentally, like, you know, if you're really disciplined and you're really going at it and you're following a routine, you're following a protocol because you're a go-getter and you want the results. And you know that's the thing that you need to be doing, then it's nice to have a little bit of a relief in a week where mentally you can just take a break from the tracking of the macros or following the nutritional protocol. And this reduces stress and making it a heck of a lot easier for you to adhere and enjoy the plan that you are on for the long term.

20:14Because somebody is following something every single day and in the calorie restriction every single day and, like, you're going gun to the wall that people do this in, like, 12 weeks or, like, a three-month period because three months to this. And then, you know, you're strict, strict, strict, strict, and then wonder why people mentally afterwards can't adhere to that because they weren't giving themselves breaks along the way or enjoying it or making it easy or even focusing on a long-term concept. That's why people gain their weight back. Because there's no, like, there's no, there's no, like, break in the three months and then afterwards you're like, I'm done doing it and I have some type of result.

20:54But I'm going to go back to all the bad habits I have because that sucked and, like, I missed everything that I wanted to have. You can have what you want to have along your journey. You can implement this type of strategy of cheat meals. You don't have to restrict anything. But like I said at the beginning of the podcast, you most definitely do need to develop discipline around the food. You need to develop better habits around the food. And you need to create boundaries around the food. Okay? Anyway. Those are some of the scientific, like, aspects of what cheat meals can do for you.

21:29Now before I get into talking about, like, preparing for cheat meals and having the right mindset and what I want to talk about is when to implement them. So, refeeds and cheat meals, right? I keep saying, like, there's two different protocols that you could do with those. First, to cheat meals. So, you know, if you're following a macro adherence and you're, you know, following a nutritional protocol for the seven days of the week, what I would normally say to people with a cheat meal approach that, you know, people don't want to have to track anything and they can allow themselves to just go out with dinner with friends and family for the night or, like, with hubby for a date night or whatever, your kids for a kiddo night.

22:07Right? Is you're not tracking anything. However, leading up to that, and this kind of goes into, like, preparing for those days, is you are still eating normally throughout the day. It's not like a cheat day, okay? It's still control because you are developing habits here. You are developing, you know, said boundaries and said discipline. I'm just going to keep going back to those words because it's different than what you've been doing, which led you to a result that you don't want. So, you have to change your ways. And this is part of the strategy.

22:38So, you still wake up, you eat a healthy breakfast, or, shit, if you want a cheat meal being breakfast, then go have that. But then when you get home, keep in mind that majority of that was all carbs and fats, a little protein. So, the rest of the day, you've got to, like, portion out your protein doses to make sure that you're still hitting a protein number. And maybe just the rest of the meals throughout the day are just limited in carbs and fats because you had a ton at breakfast. Maybe you have a little bit more. You leave space in the middle of the day because you just had a ton.

23:10Maybe just letting the digestive and, like, your blood sugars regulate. At the end of the day, you have a little bit more carbs, right? So, this is, like, kind of like you're still routinely eating what you would normally eat. Like, if I was to go on a cheat day, right? Or cheat meal, not cheat day. I wake up, I would have my normal breakfast, egg, egg whites, bagel, cream cheese. Next, lunch, like, chicken and rice. Next, like, a Stiggy's and Stiggy's yogurt and granola.

23:41Or even in place of that meal that I just said, like, my pre-workout meal. Oatmeal, egg whites, and go crush a workout. Have my protein shake afterwards. And then, like, a banana. And then that, right there, that point, night on, I would just go out to dinner. Have, you know, what I want. Have a little bit of dessert. And that would be the end. This is the thing, though, with that approach. Is I always say to people when I'm assigning the cheat meals is do not be an asshole.

24:13I say that with love. Because people, and I have done this, and I can speak to this, is I would go out for a cheat meal, right? And I know that I've had clients do this. I've seen babes do this. And Warrior Babe, they will go have their cheat meal. But they will eat like an asshole. And they will eat until they are uncomfortably full. That is not the right approach. You just want to eat until you're comfortably full. You are satisfied. And you know when to stop. That is a discipline in of itself. That is a habit in of itself.

24:44That is a boundary in of itself. You need to know when you need to stop. I have gone. I remember one of my first cheat meals was, like, pretty much a whole pie of pizza. A half of a stromboli. And a blizzard from Dairy Queen. And not a small. It was a large. And boy, when I tell you, I was sick after. So I know I've had clients do this. I've had Warrior Beams do this. I've coached on coaching calls that, you know, you ate like an asshole.

25:16Now you know. But the thing is, if you can learn from that situation and not do that the next time, you're winning. Okay. So that's kind of like the approach with a cheat meal day. A refeed day is essentially keeping the same macro numbers that you would have on a regular basis. Whatever you're doing the seven days of the week. And on the refeed day, increasing your carbs by like 70 grams, give or take. It depends on who I'm working with.

25:47But ballparking, 70 grams. And then your fats by like 15 grams. And so that allows you to kind of disperse your macros as you want throughout the day. So there's like my A type people that I work with. Like, you know, they got to still track. And they want to do it right. A to Z, right? And so this is what I would implement them with. Like there's some people that just want to like, I just don't want to track for a day. Like I just don't want to think about it. Like I just want to, you know, have my cheat meal and let it be. I want to enjoy.

26:17I want to go out. Blah, blah, blah. Totally. Amazing. Go do that. There's also people that I worked with. It's like, I need to track. I'm A type personality. I need to know everything down to like the plus or minus five in my day. And I'm like, cool, this is your strategy. And now they can disperse how they want. And MyFitnessPal is super cool. You could totally add the days of the week in the pro version of when you are doing a refeed. You could choose a Wednesday. You could choose a Friday. And it will automatically increase your macros that you have set for that refeed day every week.

26:49And it's just as simple as that. It's literally like 70 grams and 15 grams of carbs, 15 grams of fats. And it's just all throughout the day. And so, okay, those are like my strategies, right? Okay, but now when to implement them. So I kind of talked and alluded on it throughout the podcast. But for both versions, whatever one you're doing is I would pick a bigger muscle group. So for example, what I would do is I would go crush legs.

27:22Or I would crush back. And then I would have my cheat meal at night. And then the following day, I would go and crush backer legs. Typically, I probably do back on a day that I was a little bit depleted and needing a cheat meal. And then the next day, I would go crush legs because I have way more stamina to get through the workout. And that food is going right to a muscle that I'm trying to build. So there's my strategy there, right? Same thing with refeeds. But on the refeed day, when I know the day I'm getting the food, and it's all dispersed throughout, I would go crush.

27:58Like I would put that carb around my workout, my pre-workout, my post-workout, and I go crush legs on that day. And then the next day, I go crush back. Or whatever muscle group you guys are trying to build, honestly, like to the point that I just said a couple of minutes, a couple of seconds ago. It's like, you know, I was always trying to build up my legs and my glutes. So I would make sure I would eat. And then the next day, I would go crush that muscle group because basically, I'm just feeding my muscles that fuel. So those are some of the tactics and the strategies that I would implement.

28:30Now, when it comes to my brain just like went avenue there. And I was like, okay, cool. That's the next thing that I want to talk about. And then it just like completely slipped. When you are preparing for these days, I kind of talked about that a little bit. You still want to make sure you're somewhat around or on your protein targets for the day. And you're going to, no matter what, go over on your carbs and your fats. So, but protein still is super essential. I mean, okay, that's what I was going to bring up.

29:01What to eat? Like what is an ideal cheat meal? I have had probably every single cheat meal under the sun. And I can tell you that after eating pizza or anything that was heavily induced with dairy, I would feel sick and or actually get sick. I got sick after eating a ton of pizza. Dairy just did not fit well with me after. I'm fine eating it. But like in big things like that, not good. Um, so that, what I would aim for is like a burger and fries.

29:37A burger and sweet potato fries was my favorite. Five Guys was my, for weeks on end, was my cheat meal to go to with the Cajun fries. Or a steak and sweet potato. That was my cheat meal for a long time as I got closer to like show day. Um, when I competed, um, I would always have dessert afterwards, no matter what. Like even if I was a couple weeks out from show or even, you know, normal lifestyle training. I would always have, you know, Maggie Moose from right across the street or, um, uh, pastries was one of my things.

30:12York peppermint patties was one of my things. I would always fit that in where I wanted to. Um, so, and just keeping it like still somewhat clean. But like, again, the kind of what I said earlier, just don't eat like an asshole. Like you just don't want to eat until you're uncomfortably full. You just want to eat, um, till you're satisfied. And then you will feel satisfied for the next couple days. You're like, okay, I'm good. I don't need that. I can type without food again for a little bit until like the following week when you're ready to have it again. Um, a good question actually thinking about that is like the frequency of these.

30:45Which I talked about a little bit at the beginning. It depends on the individual I'm working with. So it's like typically some majority of the people I work with outside of the ones that, you know, have the disciplinary things that need to work on, the habits that need to work on, need to lose the weight. If you're more like, you know, you're looking on, you're in a stable area of like looking to tone up and lose body fat and like we need to fuel your body to make those things happen. Um, it's more so along the lines of like maybe someone who needs to lose like 20, 30 pounds or less.

31:15Um, actually it totally depends. Now saying that out loud, like it totally depends. Like if someone was like 75 pounds overweight, like I said at the beginning, I wouldn't necessarily eliminate this concept, but maybe I would plug it in once a month. Um, to like relief things for them. And like, know that this is like a long-term solution. Like, okay, go have a cheat meal. You're doing the work. I'm proud of you. And you can only get a cheat meal if you're doing the freaking work. Let me just slide that in there right now.

31:46Because I don't want anybody running, especially like warrior babies going to their coaches saying, I want a cheat meal. If you ain't doing the work, you don't deserve a cheat meal. Point blank. Okay. Um, and then normally like if you're, you know, you are doing the work, I would give you a cheat meal on a weekly basis or a bi-weekly basis. It depends on the psychological like aspect of the client I'm working with. Maybe cheat meals throw people off, which they have with people that I've worked with. Okay. So we need to like address that, but like still implement them so that we can work on it. So the frequency totally comes down to the individual.

32:18Um, mindset. I kind of like dispersed mindset all throughout the podcast, but I really just want to kind of close it down on this, this concept is when you are going in to having this type of approach or methodology into your fitness journey, the right mindset is so important to have. It's so needed. One, you need to remember that one day of indulgence won't completely derail your progress. It's about you, you know, psychologically relieving the, the protocols of your day-to-day with nutrition,

32:55about the balance, about the moderation. And then what I said earlier, the long-term goal that you're going for, you can't implement strict things for three months straight without having some type of consequence coming out of that. How can we stop that though? Okay, cool. We implement these weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, depending on where you're at. And you learn how you feel from them, right? At the beginning, do you feel like this is going to derail your progress? Cool. Let's talk about that.

33:25Let's get a little bit deeper. Why do you feel that way, right? Is there some kind of story or limitation or belief you have going on that is getting in the way of you accepting this type of methodology in your journey? But most of all, just no guilt. Don't have any guilt. Like it's a lot easier said than done. You will notice you will have some in the beginning, totally normal to feel those feelings, but important to address them so that you can become more, you know, in alignment with the concept of a treat day, cheat day, refeed day.

33:57It's all about balance. It's not going to completely, it's not going to derail your progress at all. I will say maybe the next day you will wake up and feel a little bit more bloated because you had more carbs than normal. That is normal. Um, if you are one of those that doesn't, that gets on, like what I said earlier, doesn't, that does get on scale, but the scale doesn't move. Like for me, it moves. Some weeks it did, some weeks it didn't. It's okay. It's just because you had a little bit more carbs than normal. So you're holding on to a little bit more water weight. It's not fat. I talked about this in previous podcasts before.

34:29So no guilt. One day of indulgence during week is not going to derail your progress. What will derail your progress is if you turn a cheat meal into a cheat day the next day and then turns into a cheat week that then turns into a cheat month. What will derail your progress is if you're not doing the work and you're implementing a cheat meal and you're wondering why you're not getting results. That will derail your progress. It's strategy at this point, you guys. There's a place and a time for these protocols to be implemented into your routine, but you

35:00have to deserve them, right? And by deserving them, you do the work of what's necessary for you to have and deploy on these things. But anyway, okay, what will derail your progress is all those things I just said. But aside of that, it's not going to derail your progress if you're strategically implementing them. Another thing, the mindset to have is enjoy every single bite. Enjoy every single flavor. I remember, and I still do this when I have one here and there, but even at the beginning

35:34of my journey when I was really in it with the cheat meals, I would sit down and be like, oh God, this is so good. Like I would really enjoy and be grateful for this meal that I'm having because on a day to day, my discipline calls for me to just stay head in and focus on the normal protocols that I'm doing day to day. And sometimes I can't always indulge in like two burgers or a couple pieces of pizza, you know? It's all about balance. And when you do enjoy every single bite, it really, really helps you to feel grateful,

36:07one, but also feel satisfied and less likely to overeat. You will notice that if you savor every single bite, you can start to feel yourself getting fuller and fuller and you know when to stop. Those are honestly a few of the specific mindset ones that I would say that like, you know, outside of the ones that I've kind of trickled in throughout the podcast. But all in all, that's all the things in terms of cheat meals and refeeds, you know, the science

36:38behind them, how to implement them, the strategies to implement them, when to implement them, how to prepare for them, the mindset to have around them. All in all, the encompass of the concept of cheat days, refeed days, and how, again, when they are implemented and done right, man, can they serve a huge, huge, huge, huge strategical, you know, focus for you helping to, you know, build more muscle, look more toned, boost your

37:14metabolism, do all the replenish the collagen stores, which then gets you to recover better and perform better. Overall, arching, like if you apply these the right way, this could be a huge asset to your fitness journey moving forward and the results that you get. And most importantly, making it your journey so freaking enjoyable, where it doesn't have to be like restriction after restriction after restriction for months on end. You can have this on a weekly basis. And like, you know, with the work deserve to have one of these.

37:47And it will make you appreciate your journey so much more. And I can say that just, you know, firsthand, at least speaking to them, because they were part of my journey. For a long time, I implemented them for a lot of the clients still do a lot of the coaches implement them for their clients. And it's just a nice like, it's just a nice psychological refresher. One, two, it also gets you really good results. Because like I said at the beginning, it just like how you confuse your muscles on a like

38:17a six to eight week block, you confuse your metabolism on a weekly basis to rev up to boost and to get you the results you want. So anyway, forever cheat meals, they rock. Refeed days, they rock. Concepts are one and the same, just a little bit different way that they get deployed. Anyway, guys, I hope that you enjoyed that podcast. Thank you for listening to this, to the podcast. I appreciate you guys so, so, so freaking much. And I'll see you in the next one. Peace out. Hey guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, lose body fat, build more muscle,

38:52feel more confident. Do it alongside one of our 30 plus professional coaches. Work one-on-one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork that you may have. And all you need to do is just do the work that she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. Now to learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now.

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