Announcer: 0:02

If you're a whiny snowflake that can't handle the truth, is offended by the word fuck and about 37 uses of it in different forms gets ass hurt. When you hear someone speak the absolute, real and raw truth, you should leave Like right now. This is Shut Up and Choose, the podcast where we cut through the shit and get real about weight loss, life and everything in between. We get into the nitty gritty of making small, smart choices that add up to big results. From what's on your plate to how you approach life's challenges. We'll explore how the simple act of choosing differently can transform your health, your mindset and your entire freaking life. So if you're ready to cut through the bullshit and start making some real changes, then buckle up and shut up, because we're about to choose our way to a healthier, happier life. This is Shut Up and Choose. Let's do this Now.

Jonathan : 1:10

Your host, jonathan Ressler. Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose the podcast that cuts through the crap of fad diets, quick fixes, unrealistic weight loss promises, all that stuff. I'm your host, jonathan Ressler, and I'm here to share the brutally honest truth about achieving sustainable weight loss. After losing now 140 pounds without resorting to any extreme diet or crazy exercise, I discovered the key to success lies in making these small, smart choices and embracing a balanced yes, I said a balanced lifestyle. So let's get into it and we'll talk about some practical tips and some sarcasm, of course, and hopefully I'm going to help you take control of your health and transform your life. So let's get started today. So let's talk about this thing that I believe is one of the most glorified, probably one of the most destructive concepts in the diet world, and that's cheat days. Yep, you heard me right. We're going to talk about why cheat days might be the stupidest idea I've ever heard when it comes to long-term weight loss. So if you're sitting there thinking about that next pint of ice cream or all those burgers you're going to eat, you're going to devour and suck down on your next cheat day, just sit tight and take a listen to what I have to say. So, first off, let's break down the idea of what cheat days are. Basically, it's the idea that you can stick to a really strict diet for most of the week and then have one like glorious day where you eat whatever you want Burgers, fries, pizza, donuts, candy, you name it All the stuff that you've been denying yourself for the other six days. That's crazy. It sounds great, right, but a day where calories don't count, you can indulge in all your guilty pleasures. I mean wow. But let's get real right. Cheat days are like setting a match to the progress of everything you did over the past six days and just watching it burn.

Jonathan : 3:02

Now, I know cheat days have been around probably since the beginning of time, I don't know but to me, the most kind of influential person or the guy that really glorifies cheat days is the Rock. Now, I have nothing but respect for this guy. I mean, he is a machine, there's no question about it. But I follow him on Instagram and I see the things that he eats on his cheat days are incredible, and that probably makes a lot of people think that they can do the same thing on their cheat day. But here's a little wake-up call for you.

Jonathan : 3:32

Okay, the Rock is a machine. I mean the guy eats thousands of calories but, more importantly, he spends hours in the gym every day. He is not the same as you. I mean he's kind of like me, but seriously he's not like you. I mean you don't spend that kind of time in the gym. And he is a fat-burning machine. I mean, forget the fact that, with a BMI of 30, the Rock technically, under the guidelines, is technically he's obese, which would tell you what the guidelines really mean. They mean nothing If that guy's obese. Holy shit, I'm like I don't even know what I am. But the Rock is a fat-burning machine, he's an exercise machine and, for lack of a better term, the guy's a freak of nature. I mean he could burn all those calories all week, every week, six days a week, and then go eat a shit ton of stuff. That is just mind-blowing, but the next day he's right back to it. I mean the guy just doesn't store fat because he burns so much.

Jonathan : 4:39

So the Rock is the guy that, in my opinion, really glorified this whole thing about cheat days. And if you're following him and you're thinking cheat days are okay, you're completely wrong. Cheat days are a disaster for long-term weight loss. I mean, if you really sit down and think about it. Let's talk about the term cheat day. Just the name alone kind of implies that you're doing something wrong like that, you're going off this eating program.

Jonathan : 5:08

Cheating is associated with guilt and shame and really doing something you shouldn't be doing, and that mentality is completely destructive and it sets up that negative relationship with food right from the start, right? So food isn't something that you cheat on. Food is something that nourishes you and you enjoy, and eating should be a wonderful experience, not a like oh my God, I'm going to cheat today and eat all this stuff. No, in my way of eating, the way that I eat, I can cheat any time I want and I don't call it cheating. I call it feeding my soul because that's what I need at that moment. But there's no foods that are off limits and when you start to say call it a cheat day or a cheat meal, you're really saying that I'm doing something wrong and this is not the right way to eat.

Jonathan : 5:51

But if you think about your friends that you know can eat anything and they never put on an ounce, that's because they eat in a normal way. They don't binge all the time. Yes, they eat dessert, they'll eat ice cream if they're out with their friends and they'll have a few drinks and they'll do all those things that are quote unquote cheating, but they do it with moderation. They make small, smart choices about what they eat and drink, naturally For those of us that are a little bit weight challenged, we kind of tend to not make those choices naturally and we really have to think about it, and that's why I always say being present is so important. Every time you open your mouth, you need to be thinking is this really what I want? And again, going back to feeding your soul, if that's what you really need, if that's something that you needed that moment because you broke up with your boyfriend or girlfriend or you're just having a minute, that's okay, as long as you stopped and thought about it. That's not cheating. That's actually thinking about what you're putting in your mouth and eating it, and that is perfectly fine. So I like to think that I'm a pretty confident guy and you know.

Jonathan : 6:58

But the reality is, when you do a cheat day or a cheat meal, it kind of it sets you up for like this vicious cycle of guilt and shame. I've been good all week eating my kale and quinoa, but then I just unleash the beast on my cheat day and I eat whatever I want. Yeah, it's good and I love it, and then it's harder to go back. But after that kind of initial euphoria of eating all that garbage, all that food, all that stuff that you think is cheating, the guilt sets in. And I mean, I admit it, I would, you know, try to be on my diet or try to do a diet, and then I would cheat and I would start to feel guilty that I cheated. And then I'd start to feel like I failed and I undid all the hard work. And then I'd get into that mindset well, ah, fuck it, I blew the diet, so I'm just going to continue cheating, I'm going to start. I'll start again on Monday, you know.

Jonathan : 7:47

So that guilt kind of hangs around you and it definitely messes with your head and makes you think like hey, is this weight loss thing really worth it? I mean, when I was laying in the hospital, I was at a point, before I really embarked on this journey, where I learned how to eat. I taught myself how to eat. I was laying there and saying I can't do another diet, I just can't do it. It's too. It's just not worth it. And you know, fuck it and that's a really bad place to be. But that place comes from allowing yourself. I believe, from allowing yourself these cheat days. They set you up for failure. If it's not a cheat, you're not failing, it's just a choice that you made.

Jonathan : 8:27

If you really think about it, you know cheat days create this feast or famine mentality. So you spend your whole week, you spend six days in a famine, restricting everything you eat, counting every calorie, which you know I think is a total crock of shit. And then one day in a feast, bets are off, right, I'm gonna eat anything I can. And what is that? That's yo, that's a yo-yo approach and it wreaks havoc, for me at least, on my mental health, and I bet you, if you really sit down and think about it, it does the same for you. So this cycle of like restriction and denial and preventing yourself from eating the things that you like, followed by a period of overindulgence, creates like a crazy thing in your emotions. Right, it goes from the highs of indulgence to lows of guilt and regret. So I really think cheat days are unbelievably detrimental to a long-term weight loss.

Jonathan : 9:25

Another thing about cheat meals and cheat days is it reinforces this idea that some foods are good and some foods are bad, and you know how I feel about that. I don't think there's any food that's bad. There are better choices than others, but there's no food that's bad, and that black and white thinking is a recipe for failure. Food is not your enemy, it's fuel and it's something you should enjoy eating. When you label foods as bad, you're setting yourself up for that battle in your head every time you crave a slice of pizza or a donut or something that the diet industry or some jerk-off weight loss coach would tell you is bad, because, at the end of the day, it's not just about the calories, it's about this relationship that you have with food, and right now I think I have a great relationship with food, and by categorizing food as good or bad, you start to develop a really unhealthy relationship with eating.

Jonathan : 10:20

Good foods, right, are typically seen as the things that are low in calories and high in nutrients, like fruit, vegetable lean protein, stuff like that and bad foods are those that are high in calories and sugar and fat, like desserts and fast food and donuts and all that stuff that you're probably craving. That kind of dichotomy of good and bad leads to obsessive thoughts about food, where you're constantly judging yourself based on the things that you eat or what you want to eat. And when you give yourself permission to eat those things anytime you choose, you get rid of that good-bad mentality. You get rid of that good-for-me, bad-for-me mentality and you say everything that I choose is the right choice and it's good for me.

Jonathan : 11:06

Another thing that I hate about you know, cheat days and cheat meals is it for me? It would give me kind of this last supper mentality where I'd feel like I had to eat as much as I possibly could because I know I'm going back to restricting myself tomorrow and, like I said, I've been on every diet under the sun and even if I gave myself a cheat day, I would gorge myself on those days and eat all the things that I couldn't eat on that diet because I cut out carbs or I couldn't eat potatoes or whatever it was that I was cutting out of my diet. I'd eat it like an animal on my cheat day and and that leads to binge eating. Right, I did. I was binge eating where I was just consuming massive quantities of food in this really short period of day, you know, of one day. So, not only like was I physically uncomfortable yeah, I was nauseous because I was eating so much but it really messed with my emotions. It really did.

Jonathan : 12:02

I mean, maybe I didn't know at the time, but it messed with my emotions and after a cheat day I always regretted it and I always was, like you know, became self-loathing where I was like, oh, I can't believe I did that, I can't believe I let myself eat that. Do you have no control? And that really is a really, really dangerous way to lose weight or to try to lose weight, because you're constantly succeeding and failing, succeeding and failing, succeeding and failing. It's basically what that is. A cheat day is setting you up for yo-yo dieting and we all know yo-yo dieting is terrible for you. Now, we all know that I'm not a doctor, but I did say that I did educate myself on kind of how all this stuff works, how my metabolism works and all that.

Jonathan : 12:49

So if we want to talk about the science of it, when you suddenly overload your body with just a shit ton of calories on a cheat day, your body just freaks out. So your metabolism gets thrown into total chaos. So all week your body's adjusted to this lower calorie intake and then boom, you hit it with like a nuclear bomb of calories and that leads to metabolic confusion and it really stops your progress. It's like like imagine you're revving your car engine up to the max one time a week. I'm just revving the shit out of it. You know that's not good for the car and you know it's not good for your body.

Jonathan : 13:26

They also, cheat days, send your blood sugar into a wild ride, right. If you consume large amounts of sugar and carbs like all in one go, it causes a massive spike in your blood sugar followed by a crash. Now, like I said, I was lucky, I was never diabetic. I don't know how, but I was never diabetic. But that roller coaster can leave you feeling tired, angry and honestly craving even more junk food. So you're kind of getting yourself into that vicious cycle that makes it harder to get back on track that next day. I'm sure many of you and I'm guilty of the same exact thing.

Jonathan : 14:05

After your cheat day. You're like you know what, I'm going to go a little bit more and you never get back to what it is that you were trying to do, which was a diet. So when you eat a ton of sugar and all those refined carbs, your body releases insulin to help manage the blood sugar spike and that could lead to a massive drop in your blood sugar level, leaving you feeling like. You know it's a typical like and I know turkey has tryptophan, but it's the typical after a big meal. You know you always feel like kind of lethargic and obviously you get home you're craving more sugar to bring your energy back up and over time those fluctuations can contribute to insulin resistance and create the possibility of giving yourself diabetes.

Jonathan : 14:49

Like I said, I was lucky I never had it, but I sure as hell was trying without knowing it. So here's another little wake-up call eating excessive calories on a cheat day actually leads to fat storage. When you consume more calories than your body needs we all know this the excess calories are stored as fat and that can be a huge problem if you're trying to lose weight. Obviously you're trying to lose fat, so literally a single cheat day can undo a whole week's worth of progress, which you know gets frustrating, and you get discouraged. And what do you do? You say, ah, I can't do this. It's too tough, I don't know what's going wrong, but I just can't do this anymore and you quit that diet because that's not natural eating. To just gorge yourself one day a week and then the rest of the week deprive yourself, it just makes no sense, unless you're the Rock, because he's a freakish machine. But if you're not the Rock, if your name is not Dwayne Johnson, you can't have cheat days, not if you want to achieve sustainable weight loss and make it easy.

Jonathan : 15:58

Now you know, my whole thing is about sustainable weight loss, right? It's not about cutting foods and food groups out of my diet. It's about sustainable weight loss. So cheat days make it unsustainable in the long run. They might provide you like temporary relief from that strict dieting, but they sure as hell don't promote lasting and healthy habits. And that's what small smart choices do. They teach you how to eat properly. They teach you how to eat in any situation and weight loss and maintenance of your weight loss. That requires consistent, sustainable changes to your eating pattern and to your lifestyle, and small smart choices help you do that. So if you're relying on cheat days, you're creating a cycle of restriction and indulgence that it's difficult to maintain over time, and cheat days also can help you reinforce emotional eating habits.

Jonathan : 16:54

I will admit I was an emotional eater. When things were bad or things weren't going my way, I would turn to food. So when you use food as a reward or a way to cope with stress, you're not addressing those underlying emotional issues that drive overeating. I'm not saying that I've dealt with my underlying emotional issues, but at least I think before I eat and I say you know what I'm eating for emotional reasons. So you have to get away from that emotional eating or those cheat days that allow you to emotionally eat, where you rely on food for comfort rather than dealing with the emotions and the health. Obviously, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a psychologist, so I can't tell you how to deal with your emotional issues. That's not what this podcast is about.

Jonathan : 17:34

But no, you can control your emotional issues as it relates to food by thinking every time you open your mouth and making a small, smart choice when you want to eat something that you know is not going to get you closer to your goal. So what's the alternative to all that? I mean, how do you enjoy, and how do I enjoy all my favorite foods without sabotaging my progress? The answer is really simple it's small, smart choices, it's balance, it's mindful indulgence. So instead of dedicating an entire day to overeating which I did I pretty much dedicated every day to overeating but instead of doing that, allow yourself to have these small treats throughout the week, if that's what you think you want. You want a cookie? Go ahead, have one. I mean no big deal. Make the next choice a smart choice. But don't have a cookie or a donut or whatever that thing is and turn it into a binge fest. Know that you can come back to it some other time. You can eat it whenever you want. So enjoy it, savor it, really love it and then move on.

Jonathan : 18:38

So this kind of small smart choice thinking means that you're being present and really experiencing the food that you eat. And when you eat mindfully, when you think about what you eat, when you're present, you're a lot more likely to enjoy the food and feel satisfied with the smaller portions. I know I was. I never thought I could eat so little, and I'm not saying I eat a little because I don't, but I never thought I would have two of everything because, hey, I'm a bigger guy, I have to, don't. But I never thought, you know, I would have two of everything because, hey, I'm a bigger guy, I have to have two. I never thought that I could be satisfied with smaller portions. But when you start to do that, you start to think about your eating, you start to pay attention to when you're full and satisfied. It helps you avoid that overindulgence that really comes kind of from cheat days.

Jonathan : 19:21

So you got to to make your favorite poop part of your overall eating plan and that way you're never feeling deprived. I never felt deprived in the 15 months I'm doing this. I ate whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want, and you know that. But if I like, know that I'm going out for pizza on Friday night, I'll plan my meals and I don't mean meal prep because I don't meal prep. I eat whatever I want. But I'll have that in the back of my head to know that Friday night, you know, I may eat more than I'd like to or I may eat things that aren't as good for me nutritionally. So I kind of balance it out earlier in the week or afterwards, whichever way it works, but I balance it out with healthy, nutrient-dense foods so I can enjoy that pizza without any guilt, without feeling bad. So when you incorporate like these treats and these things into your regular eating plan, which is what normal people do. You create a more balanced approach to eating and that allows you to enjoy your favorite foods in moderation, without feeling like you're cheating or breaking the rules. Yeah, that's it.

Jonathan : 20:26

And when you do indulge, focus on the quality of the food you're eating. Like, eat treats that are satisfying but made with real ingredients. I don't think that diet food has any nutritional value, man. I think it's poison. So, like, eat a homemade brownie made with I don't know dark chocolate, natural sweeteners. It's a much better choice than eating some candy bar and I'm not saying I don't eat candy bars because I have and I do and I will. But when you eat things that are nutrient dense, you feel more, more satisfied and you're less likely to really overeat. So focusing on that nutritional quality your food means that you have to eat stuff that's minimally processed and it gives you more calories, or more nutritional calories, rather than empty calories, like, I think those hundred cow packs that they're. They're loaded with empty calories. They're horrible for you. So it also helps you to feel full longer and it probably reduces your cravings for some of that unhealthy shit.

Jonathan : 21:26

Now, I know this is going to set some people off because it used to set me off. But here's a kicker right. Listen to your body. Your body is an incredible machine. It's so much smarter than you think it is. It knows when it's hungry and it knows when it's full. So really pay attention to those signals. When you're present, when you're eating, you actually can pay attention to those signals rather than shoveling food down your throat. So eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full, and don't just eat if it's a cheat day. I mean, that basic approach is really everything that I believe in. Everything that I've learned to do is eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full, and it's what's allowed me to have this really healthy relationship with food and I've totally eliminated binge eating. I don't binge ever on anything anymore and I was the king of binge eating.

Jonathan : 22:20

So listen to your body. That means tuning into your hunger. Know when you're really hungry or if you're thirsty, and know when you're satisfied and eat in response to those feelings, those signals, rather than some rule or schedule or diet plan. Pay attention to what you're eating. Pay attention to the signals your body's giving you, because it gives you that kind of intuitive approach to eating, where you eat when you're hungry and you stop when you're satisfied. I mean, it's so simple. I know, like you're thinking, duh, who doesn't know that? But I knew it my whole life. That's why I always say you know what to eat, it's in our DNA, but some of us choose not to do that. But when you're present, when you're thinking, when you're aware of what you choose, whenever you choose, however you choose, that's a key to eating whatever you want and still losing weight, because you eat when you're hungry and you don't eat when you're not.

Jonathan : 23:20

Now, when it comes to feeding your soul, for me, a big piece of that is portion control, right, so I'll have a small portion of that treat, of that thing. That may not be as good of a choice as it was, but it's surprising. When you slow down in your present, you can eat less. I mean, have a single scoop of ice cream instead of the whole pint. It allows you to enjoy the food without over indulging. You know that you can have it again tomorrow or sometime in the future, whenever that may be. So just eat a little bit. It'll satisfy the craving and you'll be able to go on making small, smart choices because you got rid of that craving for ice cream or cake or whatever it is that you're craving.

Jonathan : 24:03

Another key ingredient for me in being able to eat whatever I want was actually slowing down and taking the time to really savor the food. And I'm not saying that like oh whoa, hey, this no, but if I slowed down the way I ate, it definitely helped me taste it more, it helped me enjoy it more and it helped the actual act of eating last longer, which gave me a lot more satisfaction. So it really, if you slow down while you're eating those treats I mean you should slow down when you're eating anything, but if you slow down when you eat those things that you feed your soul with, it helps you feel more satisfied with less food and it really reduces the urge to overeat. I mean it. This is simple, simple stuff. Yeah, of course everybody knows you know, obviously, keep some healthy foods on hand. You know stuff that you're. I love to eat almonds, so I always had almonds around. If I was craving something, I would just eat some almonds and usually, honestly, it did satisfy my craving.

Jonathan : 25:03

And then the last, or actually the second to last, piece for me is I had to stay hydrated. I mean, I read some statistics that most of America is walking, or most of the earth is walking around dehydrated, and we don't really know it. Sometimes. We think, you know, we're hungry when we're really just thirsty. So make sure that you drink a ton of water. I mean, I drink easily a gallon of water every day, if not more. And if you drink unsweetened iced tea or black coffee or whatever it is, and if you drink unsweetened iced tea or black coffee or whatever it is, you know hot tea, that counts as your. You know your liquid intake, your water intake, so it doesn't only have to be water. I mean, I try to drink as much water, water, water as I possibly can. I can tell you that if you drink energy drinks and diet soda and all that shit, that doesn't count and that stuff is fucking killing. You Try to cut that out.

Jonathan : 25:50

And then, last but not least, is find a way to manage your stress. I don't know how to tell you to do that. Again, I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a doctor. I mean, you know, a lot of people say that when they're really stressed out, they exercise. I don't do that. I don't exercise Again. I am exercising more. I'm doing a lot of walking. But I mean, find something to distract you, to get you out of that stressful state. Whatever. Maybe you like knitting, I don't know. Whatever you like, maybe you like dancing, who knows, maybe you want to go outside in the pool and swim. Whatever it is, find something to help you manage that stress and that will definitely cut out a lot of the cravings that you may be experiencing. All right, so I guess that kind of wraps it up for my thoughts.

Jonathan : 26:36

The discussion on cheat days they're not the magic bull that everyone makes them out to be. You're not the rock. You can't eat like he eats. He is a fat burning machine. Cheat days and cheat meals they're sabotaging your progress, they're messing with your metabolism and, most importantly, they're creating an unhealthy relationship with food, and none of us need that. So eating with small, smart choices lets you achieve balance and mindful indulgence. So make room for the foods that you love, the things that you need to feed your soul, and you'll find it easier to stick to your healthy eating goals. I mean, that's the key Small, smart choices. So that wraps it up Again, my shameless self-promotion Buy my book on Amazon.

Jonathan : 27:27

It's available in print and e-book and, by the way it's been like killing it lately. I don't know what's going on, but I'm selling a lot of books. I'm shocked. I also have a, a light version, uh, that you can get it's. You can get that at learnshutupandchoosecom. It's called why you're still a fat fuck. Um, and it's, it's. It's my book. Without all the personal stories, it just kind of gives you the nuts and bolts of what I did. So again, if you know somebody that needs a kick in the ass, or if you know somebody that really, that you care about and they're overeating and maybe eating themselves to death which I certainly was tell them to tune in. Tell them to listen to my podcast.

Jonathan : 28:07

I'm harsh, I get it. I'm sarcastic. I'm brutally, brutally honest about'm harsh, I get it. I'm sarcastic, I'm brutally brutally honest about weight loss. I get all that, and it's not for everyone, but it is for a lot of people. A lot of people need that kick in the ass. You know, I just can't take the thing. Oh, big is beautiful. No, it isn't. Maybe it is beautiful to some people, but big is unhealthy and you need to get healthy. That's what matters is to be healthy, and when you make small, smart choices, you get healthy. I get healthier every day, a little bit healthier each day, and that is my goal. So, with that being said, I'll sign off and tell you to shut up and choose.

Announcer: 28:50

You've been listening to shut up and choose. Jonathan's passion is to share his journey of shedding 130 pounds in less than a year without any of the usual gimmicks no diets, no pills. And we'll let you in on a little secret no fucking gym. And guess what you can do it it too. We hope you enjoyed the show. We had a fucking blast. If you did, make sure to like, rate and review. We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find jonathan on instagram at jonathan wrestler boca raton. Until next time, shut up and choose.