That’s not particularly new, every thing I have read about fitness and nutrition talks about the need to have ‘cheat’ stuff or comfort stuff, and the range is usually between 80-90% of the time being ‘good’, and then having the treats and such. As the guy who owns my local pizzeria said (who is an ex marine and looks like he could toss a bull over his shoulder), having pizza once a week, a couple of slices, won’t kill you, nor will having a beer or two or whatnot, that if you eat a balanced diet most of the time, the rest will take care of itself. Extreme diets, like Dean Ornish prescribes, are so limited, and quite frankly pretty boring, end up non sustainable.
This makes sense to me but I also think it depends on the person. I know people who can have that occasional treat and stop and some people who can’t eat one cookie without scarfing down the whole box.
As for fitness, there is nothing wrong with a rest day, but it can be a slippery slope. One day of not running/going to the gym/ showing up to yoga class can easily turn into 2 days and then 3 … As someone who is about 6 months into a more active lifestyle I found that it was very easy to let that happen until fitness becomes an established habit. After many false starts, I found that I really had to stay with the plan until the habit stuck ( and in my case that was more than the typical 21 days). I’m now at the point where I can do 85% though if I don’t actually work out on a given day I still make an effort to move and get some activity in. If I eat a treat ( which I do) I make a point to make healthy food choices for the rest of the day. I just feel better that way.
I never refuse free birthday treats at our office. I would not buy sweats, but if they are available for free, why not? They also make me not want to eat for the very long time, so I never even gain weight after consuming couple of three donuts, I simply do not feel like eating my good lunch and my good dinner after, just snack on fruits and, surprise, my scale is very friendly to me the next morning, no problem. Another rule that I have, I never force myself to eat what I do not like, no matter how good it is considered by others. My philosophy is that if I do not like it, my body knows that it does not want to have it. I eat relatively restricted diet otherwise, but not for health purposes, but because I am pretty lazy when it comes to food, lazy even to go out. So, we eat what is easy to fix and takes the shortest time. Spinach, broccoli, carrots, frozen sweet potato french fries, lots of fish (20 min. in an oven, nothing added) or meat (12 min. on counter top grill), lots of nuts and fruits, fresh, frozen and dried. I feel that it is pretty healthy. I guess, it is good to be lazy sometime. We have no plans, except my H. has to loose, he better be loosing every day and I do not have any goal in this regard, my doc. is satisfied with all my tests.
I had a dark chocolate Klondike bar about an hour ago (first one in many moons). I’m pretty sure the dark chocolate makes the whole thing healthy.
^^^yum…love the mint chocolate ones, too. I tried a sugar free DQ dilly bar last weekend and you couldn’t tell the difference.
Dairy Queen ingredients per DQ:
Sodium Phosphate
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278747/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/520620-hazards-of-sodium-phosphate-in-your-diet/
http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/food/phosphate-foods
Mono and diglycerides i.e. trans fats
http://www.livestrong.com/article/445850-what-is-bad-about-mono-diglycerides/
The list could go on with so many of the “cheat” foods that are gleefully embraced. And therein lies the problem with this whole concept of “85/15%” if it is used to promote mindless eating 15% of the time.
The whole concept is fraught with mischief. “85/15”, “No Rules Days”, it all boils down to the same thing. Not having a mindful nutrition plan. With that comes the risk of eating processed foods with stuff in them that is just plain bad to ingest and of over indulgence undoing the benefits of whatever else you are doing. That doesn’t mean you have to be an ascete denying yourself every little simple pleasure. But you must have a mindful nutritional plan with limits. Know what you are really putting in your mouth and have limits in place. Want to eat an appealing snack, know what’s in it and avoid processed foods. Want some dessert at dinner? Plan it out in the context of the rest of your nutritional plan. Be accountable for what you eat instead of just saying you are only going to be 85% compliant and then you eat out of control for the remaining 15% of your eating time. And there should be rules and limits, thought through in advance, on a “No Rules Day”. Anything less and you are just looking to fail if you have a goal of weight management and even worse, you may be eating stuff that puts you at health risks.
No, you don’t have to be regimented and deny yourself with everything you consume but you do have to be mindful and accountable 100% of the time otherwise you are just looking for ways to rationalize self-sabotage.
Just my opinion, take it for whatever you think it’s worth, or not.