Someone wrote exactly this…

“The trips and fun are over, now I can go back to my boring healthy eating life.” Reading this actually saddened me quite a bit. If healthy eating becomes something that restricts one’s heart like that, how can it be sustainable?

Humans can’t sustain anything they don’t enjoy for long. That’s why many people want to live like they’re in prison for two months, isolating themselves from everything, dieting, reaching their desired weight, and then returning to normal life. But after reaching their target weight at the end of two months, it’s back to the pizzas and sweets, and boom, everything is back to where we started, or even to a point we don’t want. As a result, we can’t escape the familiar cycle of giving and taking, and our health doesn’t improve, or we don’t even take a step to protect our health. We find ourselves with an even more damaged metabolism.

I know, we all crave pizza and hamburgers. Are we going to live in a vise just to eat healthily? Of course not. There’s only one solution. We need to find balance. As in every aspect of our lives, finding balance is paramount. So how do we achieve this balance?

Generally, the 80/20 approach is followed, but I’m in favor of a 90/10 approach for health reasons. I believe this is the best way to eat healthily and enjoy it in modern and social life.

The rule is very simple. 90% of our lives should be spent eating well, and the remaining 10% should be spent enjoying ourselves – perhaps a pizza, a milk-based dessert, or a glass of wine. The calculation is simple. If you eat three main meals a day, you can have two cheat meals a week. Of course, I’m saying this generally, assuming everything is fine with your health. To give an example from myself, my cheat meals are usually like this: Because of my history of diabetes, I absolutely avoid sugar. So there are no rewards or cheat meals, but a portion of sushi on Saturday night or a couple of glasses of wine at a dinner with friends on Sunday afternoon are my cheat meals. You can shape this according to your eating habits and what you enjoy. The important thing here is that the 10% portion is finished as soon as it’s consumed and that you continue with your normal routine at the next meal. If we eat clean for 90% of the time, our bodies will tolerate the extra 10%.

To avoid losing control even in those 10% indulgences, my suggestion is to make healthy versions of the things you crave in your normal diet. This way, you won’t have an unpleasant life in your healthy eating habits, which is the remaining 90%. For example, if we make healthy versions of tempting foods like cookies, cakes, and pastries and eat them as part of our normal routine, we won’t let ourselves go downhill like a truck with a flat tire during those cheat days. Since we’ll have already curbed our cravings to a certain extent with the healthy versions, even our cheat days will be more controlled.

Furthermore, the psychological effects of living in a bubble and not enjoying these pleasures are much greater. It’s impossible for the body to be happy if the soul isn’t happy. Therefore, living by making ourselves happy, without obsessing over healthy eating, will heal both our bodies and our souls.

I wish everyone healthy, happy, and sugar-free days.