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To cheat or not to cheat? If you train your body to look at salad and a healthy lifestyle as a treat, you won't be as inclined to grab that bag of chips.

Treat as a noun refers to anything that affords particular pleasure or enjoyment.

To cheat means to defraud, deceive and violate rules or regulations.

These words are commonly used by my new clients and those who have yet to make significant changes toward their health and well being. It usually takes me a while to break someone from using these words when they’re talking about their diet; some are not successful, but they were not willing to change in the first place. A new acquaintance and behavioural specialist reminded me that rewarding yourself with a good treat or a special cheat is a way to avoid changing your bad behaviour. You are essentially telling yourself that all the hard work you are putting in sucks and that at some point you’ll get to reward yourself with a treat or cheat. Eventually, this is what leads to failure. Sure, maybe you can stick it out for a while and you could be better off than someone who makes no effort to eat healthy, but you’ll still have all the negative side effects from your unhealthy habits.

What to do instead:

Eat healthy all the time.

It’s hard at first, but you get used to saying no and people get used to offering healthy options. Of course, there are situations where you can’t avoid it, like when you are invited for dinner and birthday cake and there are no or few healthy options. Choose the healthiest and fill up on that and nibble on the other stuff. It’s not rude and you could argue that your host is being rude in not knowing or understanding your lifestyle choices. However, don’t get defensive if someone makes fun of your choices and don’t point out unhealthy things to your host. Just politely say you really love the salad they made and can’t get enough of it.

Treat wisely.

If you reread the definition of treat, you’ll see that even the act of being healthy is a treat. Once you see things like your workouts, healthy cooking and eating and regular sleep as pleasurable and you begin to enjoy your lifestyle, those old unhealthy treats will actually start to seem gross.

Don’t cheat. Ever.

You can modify exercises, make a conscious choice to eat healthy or not, ask for help, but don’t cheat. It always ends badly at some point.

Don’t set yourself up to fail. You are the only one responsible for your choices and have the power to fix them. You may need help sometimes and you can’t be afraid or ashamed to ask someone you trust. You have to be willing to do everything it takes to be successful.