Firstly, from a personal note I suffered from an eating disorder for over 3 years and I find words like these very triggering. 😓 In fact, it was from being so restrictive with my calories and feeling like it had to be an all or nothing approach that contributed massively to my eating disorder.

Now, you may not have been there, but the majority of women I work with, do have an unhealthy relationship with food, whether that is binge eating, under eating, stress eating, boredom eating… you name it.

And when we have a ‘treat’ and label it as such or ‘cheat’ it often adds to the guilt around the food. We have to be so mindful of the words we use with ourselves… Food language is another massive issue but I will leave that ted talk for another day. 

Secondly, I am a huge believer in INTUITION + BALANCE! ⚖️ Your body is intelligent and whilst you may get a hankering for some chocolate the week before your period, this isn’t your body working against you (believe it or not)

It is actually often a sign we need some extra magnesium (the beautiful nutrient that helps with stress and cramps and we don’t eat enough of), and chocolate contains magnesium so this is why we can crave it. 

SOLUTION: get a high quality magnesium supplement that you take daily, and if you still want the chocolate before your period, enjoy it… mindfully!

In terms of the BALANCE factor… we have to learn to put things into perspective. Remember that all or nothing approach and restrictive dieting is not a long term fix… instead, look at your entire week and see how BALANCED it is. 

I teach my clients to look at it this way… Your average person eats 35 meals a week! 🤯 (3 main meals and 2 snacks)… so if you have 2 – 3 meals ‘off’ a week, it’s really not the end of the world is it!

From personal experience and with clients I have found treat foods or cheat meals often leads to overindulgence, bingeing and guilt 😣🍫

Have you ever found yourself saving up for a ‘cheat meal’ only to feel completely sick 🤢 afterwards because you ate waaaay more than you normally would out of fear of not getting to eat it for another week/month etc? 😫

In all honesty, this used to be me, I’d wait till Saturday evening came around, and then binge on burgers or pizza, ice cream, chocolate and lollies. 🍔🍕🍬🍫

Then I’d feel so guilty, I would go and purge to make myself feel better. 🤮

Not everyone is like this, but it is very easy to get into the mentality of restriction then bingeing, so I would rather discourage it. 👎🏽