Your favorite "cheat day" meals

I eat extremely healthy six days a week. I am talking six small meals with lean proteins, complex carbs from whole grains, fruits/vegetables, healthy fats, and a lot of water. The whole nine yards. However, I allow myself one day a week where I will have a cheat meal of whatever I like.

What are your favorite things to eat on a cheat day?

I have one cheat meal designed for every Sunday :

1) First Sunday - Medium cheese pizza with extra sauce (there are 8 pieces so I split it up over two meals)

2) Second Sunday - A "Juicy Lucy" burger with bacon. Awhile back I was watching Man vs Food on the Travel Channel and they were doing a piece on Juicy Lucy's. Lay an uncooked patty down, put some American cheese on top of it. Then put another patty down on top of that. Fold the meat around the sides. The cheese cooks into the middle of the burger and melts into your mouth when you take a bite. The best burger ever!

3) Third Sunday - A Togo's meatball sandwich

4) Fourth Sunday - A large chocolate milkshake (four scoops of ice cream)

Some kind of noodles from the magical land of asia (lo mein, ramen, soba, pad thai, drunken noodles, etc), probably with some dumplings or crab rangoons to start. yum!

i structure my "outs" as cheat weekends. bf and i date long distance and see each other every 2, 3, or 4 weeks. i take entire weekends off, usually when i see him. no counting, no worries. i eat whatever i want.

i usually get an A- for the month, so i eat healthy most every day.

sometimes i do have to get a schlotskys regular sandwich with chips and a drink but i can fit it in as a maintenance day or even with a deficit on a cardio day. i guess my other indulgence would be a mighty fine jr. cheeseburger without any fries or soft drink, just water. i can fit that in too.

haha vman, i got some chocolate goat milk at the farmers market. so delicious! the chocolate is cocoa, not sure what the sweetener is but it is like a dessert to me. if i must have sweets, i go for that chocolate milk. the guy said the fat content averages around 3.6%. that and medjool dates are my current go-tos if i need a sugar fix.

mind you a maintenance day for me is like 1600 calories (if i dont work out).

I dont like to cheat I'd rather get to my weight gain as soon as possible .

Original Post by watergirl:

i structure my "outs" as cheat weekends. bf and i date long distance and see each other every 2, 3, or 4 weeks. i take entire weekends off, usually when i see him. no counting, no worries. i eat whatever i want.

i usually get an A- for the month, so i eat healthy most every day.

sometimes i do have to get a schlotskys regular sandwich with chips and a drink but i can fit it in as a maintenance day or even with a deficit on a cardio day. i guess my other indulgence would be a mighty fine jr. cheeseburger without any fries or soft drink, just water. i can fit that in too.

haha vman, i got some chocolate goat milk at the farmers market. so delicious! the chocolate is cocoa, not sure what the sweetener is but it is like a dessert to me. if i must have sweets, i go for that chocolate milk. the guy said the fat content averages around 3.6%. that and medjool dates are my current go-tos if i need a sugar fix.

mind you a maintenance day for me is like 1600 calories (if i dont work out).

Ha Ha! Awesome watergirl. It is great hearing about your love for chocolate milk. The hardest thing for me has been only having it after workouts. That is the main reason why I was kind of stand-offish at first about drinking it. I knew that it would make me want to start drinking chocolate milk all the time...LOL

The kind that you describe sounds amazing.

All of my "cheat" things are fairly healthy, I just eat more of it than I would otherwise.  I love Pick Up Stix's tofu and broccoli without the carrots.. best dinner ever.  I usually can either split it up for dinner one night then lunch the next day, or if I'm eating maintenance, I will eat it for dinner the munch on the leftovers the rest of the night :)

Original Post by katesorad:

All of my "cheat" things are fairly healthy, I just eat more of it than I would otherwise.  I love Pick Up Stix's tofu and broccoli without the carrots.. best dinner ever.  I usually can either split it up for dinner one night then lunch the next day, or if I'm eating maintenance, I will eat it for dinner the munch on the leftovers the rest of the night :)

Wow.. I am impressed with your discipline. Even when you are taking a "break" you still eat pretty healthy.

I wouldn't really call what you described a cheat meal though. The whole point of a cheat meal is to eat something you actually like that veers off from the normal stuff that you eat. Eating tofu and broccoli doesn't exactly scream cheat meal to me. I mean, if you could choose one thing to eat that actually tastes good and is enjoyable to you, what would it be? That is what a cheat day is designed for. As long as you eat well six days a week, having one meal of junk food won't hurt you. It has actually been said that having junk food every once and awhile helps to offset your metabolism. Your metabolism can adapt to your diet, just like your body can adapt to exercise. So it is good to mix it up every once and awhile.

I'm just at the point where I don't really seem to enjoy unhealthy stuff.  I had cold stone a few nights ago, just the small "sinless" one and I didn't really feel good eating it =/

I can see where you are coming from. Even when I have a cheat meal, it is hard to enjoy it sometimes because of how full I feel after eating it. My body has gotten used to eating a lot of smaller meals over the course of the day and when you consume a cheat meal that is bigger with more calories, you feel off afterwards.

Still though, it is a blast getting to eat something that actually tastes good after a week of eating nothing but healthy food 24-7.

I like some kind of pasta dish. In the week I'm a wholewheat pasta/veggies and tomato sauce kind of girl. But every now and then I love just baking pasta in some kind of cheese sauce with an egg stirred into it, with cheese on top. Proper comforting, warm, european loveliness. No worrying about getting my 5-a-day, just flavour and pleasure, and having fun making creative things in the kitchen.

Or I'll eat a frozen pizza to myself - but I love veggies so a whole veggie pizza (with extra veggies on top) can be about 800 cals which isn't tooooo bad to fit into the day, and it makes me happy.

Or I eat at my bf's house and he is very much into his red meat, so normally its something like pasta with spicy sausages in it, sauce and white bread/garlic bread on the side. Or meat balls...mmmm

for food: pasta and meatballs w/ italian bread... this cheat is every once in a while when i visit my grandma

for dessert: ice cream ... but fat free :) with either sprinkles or strawberry & banana topping... or if i dont go out to get some i'll just eat my weight watchers ice cream

Five Guys Burger and Fries

Eh, it's not even that I eat healthy food 24/7, I just health-ify the foods that I eat haha.  Like sometimes I'll have cheese quesadillas that are home-made, but I don't use oil, I use cooking spray on the pan (not even butter), and I use the low fat cheese, and sometimes I add like 3 of those to my meal if I'm missing extra calories since the tortillas are only 80 calories, etc.

I also eat burritos almost once a week.  They have about 500 calories for the ones that I get, and they're just delicious.  They fit into my daily intake and I lower my sodium intake the rest of the day, etc.  I guess that's why I don't necessarily feel like I need cheat days, I just made more of a lifestyle change than anything.  If I do choose to eat something that a place like Jenny Craig wouldn't recommend, I just make sure I plan the rest of my day accordingly so that I don't go over my calorie or sodium or sugar limits for the day :)

Chipotle burritos with guac, sour cream and cheese... 1200 cals... ouch but I usually don't eat much else.

My brother works at Baja Sol and I make him bring me chips and avocado dip when he's done with work on Saturdays.

Original Post by saetum:

My brother works at Baja Sol and I make him bring me chips and avocado dip when he's done with work on Saturdays.

Love me some Baja Sol!

beer.....lots of beer lol and then of course once I'm drunk I eat like a maniac

I am in a long distance relationship, like Watergirl. My bf comes every other weekend to see me. Luckily, he doesn't have a big appetite. He is pretty thin.

My fave cheat meal is the smallest buritto from Izzo's Illegal Burrito  which is an inch or 2 shorter than Chipotles (very similar to Chipotle, but actually even better). I am so full, I usually just have a EAS protein drink for dinner (appx 220 cals) and some fruit in the morning before it. I was @ about 1500 cals last time...

When I am with the bf, we might eat out once or twice a month. But we have a new rule, to save time and calories, we order one appetizer, and one entre and spilt them. Reduces the need for doggie bags, greed, and saves money

Original Post by xosugarbabie05ox:

beer.....lots of beer lol and then of course once I'm drunk I eat like a maniac

 Don't let any guy ever tell you that you suck. LOL dream girl.

My favorite cheat meal is a BIG PB&J--YUM!!!. Peanut butter on both sides of the sandwich spread nice and thick with smuckers Raspberry Preserves in the middle. Makes me feel like a kid again coming home for lunch!

Original Post by daddon55:

My favorite cheat meal is a BIG PB&J--YUM!!!. Peanut butter on both sides of the sandwich spread nice and thick with smuckers Raspberry Preserves in the middle. Makes me feel like a kid again coming home for lunch!

 If that's a cheat meal then I cheat almost everyday! :-P  I love my dark chocolate PB spead nice and thick on a low carb wrap with half a jar of sugar free strawberry jelly!  One of my favorite dinners for sure!!!