Recently I had someone bring up the word cheat in conjunction with a person that is on a healthy lifestyle. I read their words and I really thought about them! In response, I am eradicating the word from my healthy lifestyle. And you can bet I'm going to tell you why!!!!
Before I go into the act of cheating in a diet/lifestyle, lets talk about a few places that cheating can happen in life:
* Cheating in a marriage. If you are in a relationship and you find out that your partner has cheated on you....it's a bad thing! A REALLY bad thing! Believe me, it's bad! You never want to have someone cheat on you! Cheating...not a good thing! IN fact, many times, cheating can end a relationship/marriage! It is disastrous!
*Cheating on an exam. You are taking an exam and you decide to cheat a little bit. Is it right? NO, you know it's not right. It might bring about the desired results, but at what price. If you get caught you could end up failing the exam which could have extremely disastrous ramifications in your life depending on what the exam is tied to. (you could fail school...lose a job...etc). Cheating on an exam is apparently not a good thing either!
So why in the world do we feel it is ok and a good thing to 'cheat' during our journey to lose weight. We have cheat meals....we have cheat days....we cheat. I have done it for years. I looked up cheat and I came up with multiple examples of my 'cheat meals' and 'cheat days'. So yes, I have done it! I've even managed to do it regularly each week and have incredible success! So it's not the concept that I have a problem with. As long as it is just a one meal or one day it is a great sustainable way to be on this journey. No, my issue is with the wording.
Why would we use such a negative word? Cheating implies that we are doing something bad...something that we are not supposed to be doing. We are being....naughty! But is a day of minor indulgences bad if it is just that day? Is a meal where our points/calories are a bit higher a bad thing? Or is is just life happening for that short temporary period? BY using the word cheat we are putting negative connotations into our heads. We are filling our minds with the naughtiness of being bad. We are adding negativity to our journey....and we don't need any negativity!
We are already fighting the negativity of self worth....self acceptance....self whatever! Why add more negativity to our journey? We need to be building ourselves up! Instead of cheating we can have a planned day/meal of enjoyment, a wee vacation from healthy living, a wonderful indulgence. So you see how that went? Which sounds more in control? Which one sounds more positive? Definitely NOT cheat! Sure, it's all verbiage and semantics...but that is what this journey is about....building ourselves up to make us stronger and better!!! Start with the words we use and watch the positivity spread throughout all aspects of our lives and our healthy journey!
