Cheat days & updates

Cheat day #

Everybody loves a cheat day!

A few weeks ago my wife and I established a cheat day. No limitations on sugar, unhealthy foods and media consumption for the day. The rest of the week there are no snacks, fast food, etc. and no consumption of audio-visual media.

Earlier this year during my months long no sugar challenge I had no problem forgoing sweet and savoury snacks. The same during my no media challenges. I learned about myself that I can go fine with complete abstinence. In fact it way easy for me, because the rules were so strict and clear. It’s not allowed, so my brain stops seeing it as an option. No cravings, no appetite for it.

For our wedding celebration there was cake without sugar. In place of movies and YouTube I started reading again.

This sometimes felt restrictive. I occasionally wanted to watch a movie that was recommended to me or that I remembered and my wife craved sweets irregularly.

As I read the 4-Hour Body, Tims cheat day struck me as the solution. We could contain the cravings by satisfying them on one day of the week. (So the theory.)

On these cheat days, after a normal breakfast I completely would let the monkey out of the cage though. I overate on chocolate, cake, chips and whatever I wanted and watched the YouTube equivalent of Fentanyl¹ for hours on end. My wife did not feel the need to go that far and could enjoy indulging what she had wanted to eat all week.

For me though, the fallout was immediate and lingered well into the next week.

For the physical symptoms I got the obvious stomach pain from overeating, headaches, acid reflux, acne outbreaks, contracted nostrils (it was noticeably harder to breathe) as well as much decreased sleep quality and thus poor recovery.

Mentally things were not much better. The next days I felt sluggish and more irritable, had a lack of energy and was craving sugar. Due to the dopamine overstimulation I was also lacking the motivation to move or work on my things.

Looking back at it, it seems like self torture. Nobody is making me eat and watch those things. But while you’re in it, while you’re high you pay no heed to the consequences you know you will incur later.

For me I’m going back to eating no sugar indefinitely. No challenge, no deadline, no cheat days. Forsaking sugar will make my life better and easier, so that’s what I’m gonna do.

For media I will stick with the cheat day as an opening to watch a movie if we feel like it. A guide on those rules with will definitely follow.

Update for the No Complaints challenge #

Only two infractions this week.

1. Got annoyed at people driving the speed limit. This needs to be addressed, I don’t wanna be that guy.
2. Unconsciously expressed my angry through stronger language.