Are cheat days holding you back!?

With the weekend fast approaching the likelihood is that many of us will potentially indulge in a cheat day (or two) based on the principle that we’ve grafted for the past five days in the gym and denied ourselves of anything that remotely resembles “junk food”.

When my clients ask me about cheat days, my answer is simple... There should be no need for them, and they will negate work previously done in the week.

This doesn’t mean I’m some super harsh task master (quite the opposite actually), but if your feeling the uncontrollable urge for a cheat day every 5-6 days chances are that your fuelling is not quite on point for that 5-6 day period.

Commonly this boils down to one or several of the following areas:

1. Chronic under-fuelling... Leaving yourself at a calorie deficit on a daily basis, whilst trying to make physical advancements will eventually kick you square in the bollocks. The result, poor exercise tolerance, un controllable cravings and eventually muscle atrophy (wastage).
2. Diets low in good fats and or quality protein... We can kill two birds with one stone here and where possible opt for fattier sources of meat and fish (think ribeyes, lamb, mackerel, wild salmon, chicken cooked on the bone with skin). Its pretty simple really, if your constantly satisfied, you don’t crave things.
3. Sustainability... Chances are that if your following a style of eating which is either extremely restrictive or requires a lot of micromanagement your gunna snap at some point. The way you fuel needs to fit into your movements and the way you live your life. 

Basically, go and enjoy a big arse burger this weekend with an ice cold beer whilst watching the #World cup ... Just don’t have 4 of the bastards