Breakfast – scrambled eggs with mushrooms & onions and
hash browns
Lunch – hummus, pita chips, leftover hash browns (with a
little cheese)
Dinner – 3 baked/roasted chicken wings, broccoli slaw,
roasted marshmallows
It always starts like a good idea. “Cheat for one meal a week and it will help
you curb your cravings the rest of the week.”
“As long as you are eating clean 70% of the time, the other 30% won’t
matter and you will continue to lose weight.”
It’s worked for some friends so it should work for me, right?
I've come to realize that, if I could control myself AT
ALL, I wouldn't be in this weight mess to begin with! Since dairy has been so difficult to avoid,
I decided that my weekly “cheat meal” would include dairy. Seemed logical, no? I would simply “give in” and eat along with
the rest of my family while still avoiding meat. I already knew that Saturdays were my biggest
challenge so it seemed logical that my cheat meal would be on Saturday.
Saturday morning greeted me with my hubby making breakfast. I think he was just as excited as I was that
I would actually share the meal with the family (I don’t think he noticed I
didn't eat the bacon.) I thoroughly
enjoyed my fluffy eggs with mushrooms and onions and hash browns. I then went on to my errands safe with the knowledge
that I had planned this “cheat”, enjoyed it and now was moving on.
At lunch, I was busily
packing my Saturday with all the back-to-school errands on top of the regular
Saturday list. I just grabbed for the hummus and found there
was a tiny bit. On the list was Saturday
grocery shopping, ergo, very little vegan at the ready. I reached for the left over breakfast hash
browns-- with cheese. (I had taken out
my breakfast portion prior to the cheese addition.) My toes curled, they were so good.
You would think that I could just be satisfied with that
naughty lunch and stay with my vegan diet, fully sated from my cheating venture. You would be wrong.
My brain, hopped up on forbidden dairy, quickly decided
that I could handle another stray at dinner without a problem. My son had been craving chicken wings so I
prepared them three ways: buffalo, teriyaki and garlic-parmesan. A trifecta of wing perfection! It was my undoing. As if an alien puppeteer was controlling my
limbs with invisible strings, the wings made their way into my mouth. The garlic cheesiness, the sweetness of the
teriyaki and the tangy bite of the buffalo (with extra Worcestershire sauce) attacked
the decadent pleasure sensors in my brain and had my taste buds singing. I painstakingly devoured 6 pieces, or three
whole wings, savoring every delicious bite.
My entire body smiled. And I was
satisfied.
Sunday morning, I awoke to a stocked veggie bin, loaded vegan
pantry and an over-flowing fruit basket with the products of my Saturday
grocery run. I enjoyed my protein cereal
with almond milk and prepared a super healthy bean dip to munch. Thanks to Ariana and her 21-day vegan kick-start,
I have a week of vegan delights ahead.
There will be other cheat meals or even entire “cheat” days, but I will
plan them to truly satisfy a craving, not just cheat for the sake of
cheating. Then, I will enjoy the decadence
thoroughly, as it should be.