Everybody that follows me gets excited around my birthday because they know it’s the one
time of year that I actually splurge and eat carrot cake.
But I don’t know why, because it’s not that big of a deal to me.
It’s just a piece of carrot cake.
I actually think they look forward to it more than I do.
It’s really not that good.
What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
I didn’t really like that carrot cake.
It was okay.
Guys, people get excited about the fact that I have my cheat meal once a year, on my birthday.
Maybe, sometimes, twice a year if I have it at Christmastime, too.
The fact is, guys, cheat meals are killing your gains.
If you want to get gains you’ve got to do what I do.
Never have them.
But let me explain for a second, before you get flipped out.
It’s the idea of calling it a ‘cheat meal’ that is going to kill your gains.
It’s the concept of cheat meals that is literally costing you the opportunity to look
your best.
You see, I don’t have cheat meals.
This whole thing about my carrot cake, it is true.
I only eat it twice a year, but I don’t look at it as a cheat meal and my one time
of the year, twice a year, to be free?
It’s a celebratory meal for me.
I celebrated another year of living.
That’s a good thing and I get excited about it, and we have carrot cake every year.
Why?
Because I like carrot cake.
But guess what?
If I wanted to have carrot cake every week I could have carrot cake because I don’t
approach eating that way.
When I approach eating, it’s a form of fueling my body.
I like to choose foods that I think are going to do that the best.
Is carrot cake the best option?
No.
Between 800 and 1200 calories in a slice, full of sugar; probably not the best option
for fueling me, as an athlete.
So, I don’t choose to eat it that often.
But it doesn’t mean that I couldn’t.
It doesn’t mean that I’m not capable of looking at foods that I like and saying “You
know what?
I want to eat those.”
But here’s the thing: you need to start figuring out for yourself, plenty of other
food options in your given eating style – and I’ll cover that in a second – that you
actually enjoy and like.
If you’re eating in a way, right now, that you don’t really enjoy, or like what you
eat, guess what happens?
You start labeling things as ‘cheat meals’.
You establish that a cheat meal means something better, being something more.
It’s your chance to splurge.
It’s to get away from the shit you’re eating now that you don’t like, to actually
enjoy something.
It’s the ‘cheat’.
That’s the problem.
That’s setting you up for failure because none of us can do something long-term if we
don’t like what we’re doing.
You might be able to fake it for a month.
You might be able to fake it for a few months.
But long-term, lifetime solutions?
No chance.
Deprivation-based eating styles will never work long-term.
If you were to follow something like that and actually lose weight, understand this.
That’s how you’re going to have to continue to eat.
If the method you used to get down to the successful weight that you wanted to get to
was some form of deprivation-based approach; now you’re stuck down that path.
As soon as you give that up you’re going back up in weight again.
That’s why so many diets fail.
What you need to do is ditch this whole concept in your mind of ‘cheat meals’.
They don’t exist.
You don’t want to even think of that.
You want to eat what you eat, you want to enjoy what you eat, you want to make sure
what you’re doing is consistent with how you want to look.
So, what are your goals?
Determine your goals.
You may not want to be Jeff Cavaliere with an ATHLEANX YouTube channel that has to practice
what I preach and look a certain way.
Maybe you don’t care that much.
Maybe you’re okay with 10% or 15% body fat.
Great.
Your ability to have those foods consistent with your goals are going to be expanded.
You can do that more often because it doesn’t really matter.
Your body fat levels will be consistent with that.
Again, I said, I fuel the way I do, as an athlete.
I fuel the way I do because I want to look a certain way.
I have to look a certain way, I feel.
But beyond that, how you eat?
I don’t care.
I really don’t.
People think I have this grudge against Keto, or this grudge against paleo, or feel a certain
way.
Guys, eat how you want to eat.
As long as it’s going to get you a successful, long-term strategy for staying, and looking
the way you want to look, and performing the way you want to look.
Performance is big in my world.
My athletes, they eat carbohydrates.
They have to.
Antonio Brown comes in here and trains.
Even in our workout, he’s eating carbohydrates.
That’s what helps to fuel him and keep him performing at a high level.
He’s not taking carbs out of his diet when he goes to play and week 15 with the playoffs
on the line for the Pittsburg Steelers.
It’s not happening.
Can other guys do it?
Maybe.
If they can, and they can do it consistently, and still perform at a high level; go for
it!
That’s fine.
WWE wrestler Sheamus comes into town, we workout here, we go out for dinner.
By the way, I had dessert that night when we went out.
I don’t restrict myself.
If I want to eat it, I eat it because I have a healthy relationship with food.
I know that the rest of the week I stick to my plan.
I’ll give you another sports analogy.
If you’re going to eat, and you’re looking at it in terms of sports performance, no one
ever has to be perfect to be great.
The greats of the game can be really good, but not perfect.
Tom Brady can go 21 for 27, throw four touchdown passes, and have a great game, and win an
MVP.
Baseball could have a .350 and be great, be a hall of famer.
You don’t have to be perfect.
If I’m eating three times a day, a couple of snacks in between – say, five meals in
a day – and I have seven eating days of the week, that’s 35 meals.
If I go 33 for 35; I’m good.
There are two carrot cakes right in there.
No problem.
No problem at all.
So, I invite you to make sure whatever it is you’re doing, you eat the way you eat,
as long as you can consistently eat that way for a lifetime.
When you do – and it’s not deprivation-based, because again, you can’t stick to something
deprivation-based forever – you’re going to find there is no such thing as a cheat
meal.
You want to be able to continue to eat the way you eat, and if you want to have something
that makes you feel good, or happy because you like the way it tastes; then go for it.
No problem at all.
So, guys, I’ll leave you with one last point here.
Longevity is the key.
If you’re looking at things that are labeled as ‘cheat meals’ you’re in a short-term
mindset.
You’re looking for that short-term satisfaction.
The way you stop killing your gains is looking for something that will allow you to be consistent.
Consistency is the key to anything.
You get better at a skill be being consistent.
Your body will become better developed with consistency of a game plan in the gym with
your training, an approach to your nutrition that you can follow, and being very consistent
with your discipline.
That is how you look better and feel better all the time.
No bullshit.
Straight out.
You know that.
Being consistent day in, and day out.
We have guys that utilize our own program – and I’m going to throw one at you here.
An old guy.
He probably wouldn’t even mind if I called him this.
61 years old, 62 when he started here, this guy – this is what he looked like before.
This is what he looked like after one year of actually training and eating consistently.
But even better, this is what he looks like today, eight years later.
That is consistency.
To me, that’s a victory.
He never went back to the other diet.
He continued to get better.
That’s a lifelong plan.
You can do the same thing.
There’s no cheat.
Phil does eat.
I just saw him eating a few weeks ago at an event.
He eats.
There’s no such thing as a cheat meal with him.
He actually enjoys food because he has a healthy relationship with food.
And you can, too.
If you’re looking for our step by step approach – and we’re not perfect for everybody.
We may not be what you think, but I can tell you this: it’s going to work long-term.
To me, that’s the most important.
That’s all laid out, step by step in the ATHLEANX Factor meal plan, and all of our
ATHLEANX training programs.
You can find them over at ATHLEANX.com.
In the meantime, if you’ve found this video helpful – I hope truthful – and above
all else, I really think it’s the key.
It’s the key to getting yourself off this mindset of ‘short-term’.
Long-term consistency will always be the key, guys.
Forget the cheat meals.
Enjoy yourselves.
Start eating.
Start fueling your body.
All right, guys.
I’ll be back here again in a few days with another new video.
See you.