Go ahead and keep your "junk food". It's all about moderation!

I know it's absolutely unheard of for a workout program to allow cheat foods. Most workout plans have strict diets for obsolete and arbitrary reasons. There is this myth that there are healthy foods and unhealthy foods. This comes from the belief that healthy foods are single-ingredient foods which don't contain any preservatives or low quality ingredients while unhealthy foods, aka junk foods, are loaded with preservatives and bad quality ingredients which is why other workout plans advise that people avoid junk altogether. It makes sense and that is true for the most part but it isn't the foods that is the issue. In fact, "junk foods" aren't actually all that bad for you. It is when it is consumed in massive quantities when they do harm.

Cutting out "junk foods" isn't impossible but most people cannot completely avoid them because they run out of willpower. Willpower has been proven to be a exhaustible resource and a complete loss of willpower is the very reason people binge on foods they restricted. All strict diets do is cause the person to want cheat meals more so they give up 3-5 days in and binge eat on a box of pizza and Pepsi cans. If one can reduce the amount of temptations in their household by buying higher quality foods most of the time and allowing their favorite "junk foods" here and there, that would be fantastic. One can also flavor their healthy foods if they find healthy food "boring and bland".

It's human nature to want what we can't have so in order to prevent the actual issue which is binge eating, we need to allow ourselves to have our favorite foods in moderate amounts. This doesn't mean you do the program for one day and then hit the bar on Day 2 to celebrate changes and order drinks for everyone while you shove chicken wings down your throat without tracking any of it! That's what we DON'T want you to do. Binge eating is harmful for your health. Binge eating prevents people from staying within their calorie goals, can increase insulin resistance if done habitually and lead to many eating disorders and health problems. This is the problem we need to eliminate.

We need to create the habit of tracking our calorie intake, macro-nutrient intake (protein, carbohydrates and fats), making sure we get enough water intake and allowing ourselves to not restrict our food choices. This will prevent anyone from pigging out on foods they wanted to cut out and makes the fitness journey much easier. You can absolutely allow yourself foods as a reward at the end of the week if that'll prevent you from binge eating. If you want to incorporate those "junk foods" into your daily diet you can, if that will prevent you from craving the foods and causes you to lose your mind.

Think of the many ways you can find what numbers get to 4. You can do 1+1+1+1=4 which is dieting the hard way eating ONLY tilapia and brown rice with not a single drop of ketchup on your meals-- or the easy way of 2+2=4 which is eating 80 percent healthy and 20 percent junk foods (I will explain that there's an 80/20 rule in life later in day 1 which is a FREE trial into the program if you haven't heard already!). This program is your guide to good health but you can make it work into your lifestyle regardless of food preferences or accessibility.