Alcohol on cheat day?

[Lynette]

I am training really hard and eating clean, and would like to hear all of your opinions on whether you have a drink once a week? I love my Jack Daniels mixed with diet coke, however, should I refrain from this while I'm training to get back into top shape? Should I refrain from this drink forever? Do you guys ever have alcoholic drinks? I can't drink wine as I am a migraine sufferer and wine always brings on one of those headaches.

Also, do you think a cheat day is necessary? My brother is a bodybuilder and swears by this cheat meal, he says it shocks his system.

Look forward to hearing your opinions.

By the way Skittles, best of luck to you with your working with Shadow, seems like you've got the best of the best there working with you.

Lynette.

 

[ashley2212]

I don't drink because I find that it takes a couple days after to get my system back to normal. I don't enjoy drinking either, so it's partially just something I choose not to do because I don't see any benefits to it.

In terms of a cheat day, I have found the same thing to be true of food - it takes a couple days after a cheat day for my system to get back to normal. I hate the way I feel those couple days afterward. What works for ME is to have 2 small cheat meals throughout the week. On Wednesday and Saturday I have a multi-grain english muffin with peanut butter. I know, not really a cheat meal, but I can't control myself with peanut butter so I cut it out of my diet except for those two days. It's a huge treat for me. On occasion I'll have a little ice cream on Saturday. This way, I don't feel any different in the following days, but I can make my taste buds happy and keep my sanity

Case in point - you need to figure out what works for YOU. Some people love to have a full-out cheat day and that works for them. Some people like 1 or 2 small cheat meals. Some claim they never cheat at all. You need to listen to your body and your mind... I think a cheat meal is beneficial to challenging your metabolism, but you need to figure out how to work it out in your eating plan

Don't be afraid to experiment!

 

[anthrax]

Alcohol is not good
Period

This being said, you can't have a super clean diet all the year round

1 alcoholic drink once a week (as long as you don't drink the whole Jack Daniels bottle) will have negligeable consequences in the long run

So if you love it go with it

Everything in moderation.......

 

[rnch]

at the risk of being flamed by the more hard core peeps here..........i don't beleive that one or two mixed drinks on your cheat day is going to wreck your gains.

i also beleive that cheat days are necessary; just to get the mental cravings out of your system.

 

[jenscats5]

I myself enjoy a few drinks and there are studies going back and forth on the benefits of having a drink or two....

I'm more inclined to be "satisfied" if I have a glass of wine a couple days a week than if I try to completely abstain -- then go nutz 1 night.....

 

[Daisy_Girl]

1-2 drinks once a week will not break you.

Cheat meals are necessary - not just for cravings. Dieting lowers your lepetin levels, which will bring your metabolism down. Restoring those lepetin levels can be done through a cheat meal, cheat day. While you WILL be able to lose BF without a cheat meal, it can be harder - both physcially and mentally.

You can approach "cheating" several ways.

1) One HUGE meal, once a week (HUGE - like a whole pizza, 1/2gal ice cream)

2) A whole day to eat what you want (all day, from morning to night)

3) One NORMAL sized meal, once a week (like 1-2 pieces pizza, normal sized ice cream cone)

4) A half-day cheat (all morning, afternoon meals are cheat, evening meals are clean)

5) Several cheat meals thorughout the week (these are normal meals, nothing over the top, usually 2x a week - like a 6" sub and a cookie for lunch on Weds, slice of pizza and some chicken wings Sun - rest of meals are clean)

6) There are many many others - this is just what I see most the time.

 

[Lynette]

Thanks so much for your opinions, I'm going to stay off the alcohol till I reach my goal, then after that I'll allow myself to have a drink one day a week.

This is a great forum, you guys are fabulous.

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

i have to respond to this thread because Im prob one of the hardest drinkers (female) on this board

On the days that your drinkg, take the cals out of your food consumption & dont expect to make any gains in the gym. I will alos kill myself doing cardio to (hopefully) counteract some of the alcohol.

Three months out from a show, I will abstain from ALL drinking & any cheat meals. So I disagee w/you brother on that. Remember it takes 3 days of eating clean to compensate for one day of cheating.

cheers

 

[Lynette]

Thanks for that info msbeverlyhills, my brother doesn't have a cheat day, he has one cheat meal per week, I probably wasn't clear on that.

Cheers back to ya

 

[jenscats5]

i have to respond to this thread because Im prob one of the hardest drinkers (female) on this board

On the days that your drinkg, take the cals out of your food consumption & dont expect to make any gains in the gym. I will alos kill myself doing cardio to (hopefully) counteract some of the alcohol.

Three months out from a show, I will abstain from ALL drinking & any cheat meals. So I disagee w/you brother on that. Remember it takes 3 days of eating clean to compensate for one day of cheating.

cheers

This, I have to disagree with...... I can drink!! Maybe we should rent a limo, go out for drinks & see......