Intro:
In health and wellness circles, there’s obviously a lot of pressure to eat healthy—and for good reason.
You don’t want to sacrifice your health and wellness by eating unhealthy foods that are actually going to hurt your body and take away from your current high-quality diet and fitness plans.
With that being said, it’s also important to understand that eating bad foods once in a while doesn’t necessarily have to spell the end of the world for your diet.
Sometimes, treating yourself to bad foods (or should we say, good foods) is actually okay.
And in this post, we’re going to talk about some reasons for why this is true.
Note: Need something to snack on for cheat day? Consider this recipe by Veriheal for cannabis-infused junk food cookies!
1. It Won’t Torpedo Your Health And Wellness
Some people mistakenly believe that eating unhealthy food even once or twice will spell disaster for their diet.
But this simply isn’t true.
The fact of the matter is that you actually can indulge once in a while in foods that aren’t necessarily healthy—if you have a good reason for it, and if you don’t do it all the time.
Doing it once isn’t going to torpedo your diet.
2. Health Is More About Good Habits Than ‘Never Indulging’
One important thing to understand about good eating habits is that the habits themselves, when adhered to on a consistent basis, do a lot more good than consuming bad foods once in a while do harm.
See, the trick to increasing health and wellness isn’t to never eat another bad food ever again.
The trick is to make sure that the good foods and the good habits far outweigh the incidences of cheating.
In other words, eating three large pizzas every day is probably a really bad habit that’s going to hurt your health and wellness.
However, eating one slice of pizza every three days—well, that’s a lot different.
That’s a much smaller bad habit.
And if it’s one of the few bad habits that you indulge in, that’s not too bad.
It could definitely be worse.
3. Quality Of Life Is Important To Consider
It’s incredibly important to maintain a high quality of life for yourself.
And obviously, health and wellness fit into this.
But there are also plenty of other things to consider in this equation as well.
If you’re unhealthy, you’re not going to have the kind of high-quality life that you probably want.
With that being said, sometimes, having a higher quality of life may mean indulging in a bit of bad food once in a while.
For example:
If your child has a birthday party, and they want you to eat a piece of birthday cake with them—well, saying ‘yes’ to the birthday cake in this isolated moment will probably do a lot more good for you than harm—because the context is special and sentimental.
And this also plays a part in your quality of life.
As you can see, there are a lot of things to weigh and consider in these matters.
4. Great Food Makes Us Happy
You probably know this as well as I do.
Great foods make us very happy.
They taste good. They put a smile on our faces.
They can brighten our day.
And to an extent, we look forward to eating them.
Sometimes, when you’re having a bad day, there’s nothing wrong with reaching for a cookie and treating yourself.
Now, I’m not saying that we should use food as a coping mechanism for our unhappiness in life.
That’s a whole different issue.
But what I am saying is that taste is just one of our five senses.
And when we do things with this sense that bring us enjoyment—well, that’s a real thing.
And there’s some value to be found in that.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has helped you to understand just a few examples of why treating yourself to bad food once in a while isn’t really that big of a deal.
Equipped with this knowledge, you can enjoy your next cheat day with a little bit less guilt.
Just don’t cheat too much.
And remember to keep the majority of your habits health and wellness-oriented.
