Tyler Lacoma - Guide to Healthy Junk Foods: How to Cheat Your Diet

So, youre on a diet. Thats a great start, but you know how it goes, right? First come the exciting cookbooks and articles, then the planning and dreaming about diet goals (slimming down, bulking up, making just the right amount of muscle show all the cliches). Then comes the diet itself, and suddenly those plans slam into a wall made out of hunger, boredom, late nights, and lost willpower.

Theres a reason people bounce around from diet to diet so often. Those delicious foods youve been accustomed to eating from the bag of chips to the extra chicken nugget are programmed into your body. When you stop following the old program, your digestive system and brain rally to complain, and suddenly youre tempted to return to the old balance by adding fats, sweets, salty snacks, and all those other tasty bites youre not supposed to eat. In other words, junk food happens.

Heres the good news: not all junk food is manufactured to be equal. Even if you break your diet, you can break in the right way , and still eat fewer calories than before. Fewer calories equals weight lost, and you still win the diet game. The even better news? There are both psychological and scientific reasons why junk food can maybe even should be an important part of any basic diet. The key is proper planning, while making sure your junk food passes the right health tests.

So when that old hungry feeling hits again, dont try to force it away. Set aside part of your diet to deal with it, because many junk foods will not really ruin your diet. Some snacks even have hidden health benefits, if you know what to look for. Adding a few hundred calories here and there may be one of the best food decisions you have every made. Youll be amazed what you can eat to satisfy your off-diet cravings while still losing those pounds!

Traditional diets force off the fat by restriction. If you have the fortitude to stay away from rich foods, or at least eat less, you lose the weight. Because everyone is different and science keeps discovering new benefits to certain foods, you can choose from an endless variation of these diets to focus on carb reduction, lean muscle, low cholesterol, vegetarianism, and dozens more. However, they all have this in common: you cannot break the rules. Cheat on your diet, and the diet doesnt work right?

Now nutritionists are chiming in to say thats not entirely true. Occasionally, cheating on a diet can improve the diet and its effects on your body. By indulging your appetite what MSN calls the Cheaters Diet with frequent snacks, you are laying a stronger foundation for weight loss. This may sound like a perfect paradox, but the science makes too much sense to ignore.

Mentally, giving into the junk food temptation can prepare you to follow your diet more closely at other times. If all you have to look forward to in coming weeks (or years) is a long list of foods you can no longer enjoy, the negative aspect beats you over the brow until binging starts looking irresistible and the diet decays.

But if you set aside a meal or time to eat those forbidden foods, you can maintain positive mental energy and follow your diet more closely than you would have otherwise. If cheating is built in, the temptation goes away.

Junk food also works as a reward. If you set apart one day a week to indulge yourself as a prize for dieting the other six days, you will be more likely to stick to the diet during work days while removing the bad feelings associated with cheating.

Nutritionists recommend a healthy 90/10 rule. Follow the diet 90 percent of the time, but pick out a dessert or favorite snack food for the ten percent. If you eat three meals a day, thats two meals (and a tiny snack) without any rules, every week! An 80/20 rule can also help if youre still going too crazy. If a weekly schedule becomes a burden, apply the 90/10 rule day by day, using a portion or two for bad foods.

Biologically, your body will thank you. Eating a little bit of junk food before a big meal satisfies your appetite, making it far easier to eat smaller, healthier portions later on. With your junk food needs satisfied, compulsive choices become a thing of the past. Also, your digestive system and metabolism are in constant flux, adjusting to your current diet.

Eventually your body will get used to all your low-calorie options and stop burning as much fat, leading to diminished gains the longer you stay on a diet. Adding junk food to the diet keeps your metabolism balanced in the right state to burn as much fat as possible without becoming too used to your new plan.

Of course, a diet is still a diet. Can junk food be an important factor? Absolutely. Can you eat whatever you want? Thats just asking for trouble. When you give into the junk food craving, keep the calories low and mix in as many health benefits as you can fool your stomach into liking. If that sounds tricky, dont worry. After reading on, you will have a full list of remarkably beneficial, surprisingly naughty foods that will still keep your diet going strong.

When you get ready to indulge, keep an eye on what you eat. Look for signs that the snack food will do as little damage as possible. Ideally, the junk food will contain as little junk as possible, so raw foods and vegetables are nutritionist favorites but where is the fun in that? If the thought of snacking on some celery makes you feel even more depressed, focus more on what nutrients your junk food of choice has.

Foods high in vitamin B and calcium make great dieting junk foods. Not only will these nutrients help you burn fat while keeping your bodys cells functioning at an optimum condition they also tend to wait within tasty, easy-to-snack-on foods like yogurt, fries, and dairy products. Potassium and vitamin D are also important.

If you want to avoid vitamin-hunting and prefer skipping right to the good stuff, keep it simple. Eat snacks with lots of fiber. Go for high protein instead of high fat whenever you can. If you need the fat, stick with good monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats . If an apple keeps your stomach from rumbling, dont bother reaching for the candy bar. Above all, look for low-calorie options among your favorite foods.

All dieters know the feeling. It hits in the afternoons, or at the end of a stressful day, or every weekend, like clockwork. Suddenly you need to have a food, and your brain doesnt care about anything else. This is the perfect time to use your junk food hall-pass, but try to tailor your food to the craving you are feeling. Here are a few good ideas.

Salty

When breaking free from high-sodium foods (the sort Americans love) or taking your cardio workout to the next level, salt cravings are natural. Salted almonds are a fantastic craving killer here, because they contain vitamin E, healthy fats, and nutrients that encourage your body to keep burning fat.

A little bit of salsa and black beans paired with a veggie like celery can also work wonders. If you can find low-fat baked potato chips, they can also work in a pinch. For especially healthy options, turn to rice crackers and roasted seaweed.

Sweet

When it comes to sweet foods, your appetite is difficult to fool. So stay honest and eat a few chocolate graham cracker cookies, or a couple fig newtons, or a pack of jelly beans. The secret is keeping the sugar fix down to around 100 to 150 calories. Give it time to work, and your craving should fade away. For healthier options, mix some chocolate chips with granola, or eat some fruit slices (a source of natural sugars) with honey or cream.