Eating clean can be difficult when there are unhealthy options everywhere, tempting you to “cheat”. Whether it’s donuts in the office, cookies in the pantry or pizza at your friends house—we can all agree that it’s hard to turn down those foods all the time.
It gets to a point where you begin craving your favorite unhealthy food, wishing you were eating it instead of the chicken and broccoli you are eating out of your Tupperware.
Commonly, we see fitness icons posting photos of their extremely gluttonous ice cream sundaes, pizza binges and massive burritos, etc. that hold little to no nutritional value and excessive calories. That’s ok, that’s what they decided to cheat with.
But what if there was a way to cheat “smart”? Would you do it? Have a cheat meal that tastes great and helps you achieve your goals?
So you can try these health friendly but also tasty cheat meals :-
1. Replace regular pasta with zoodle pasta
Menon recommends zoodle pasta - zucchini spiralized to form zoodles - as a substiture for your regular cheesy pasta. Zoodle pasta is saut?ed with veggies and olive oil, stirred in with cheese and a quarter cup of white sauce. One bowl of this zoodle pasta contains only about 150 kcals while a bowl of your usual cheesy pasta contains approximately 361 kcals. Zoodle pasta is mainly made of zucchini which is high in antioxidants, low in carbs and does not have an overpowering flavor. This makes it a perfect base to absorb and blend in with added flavours and textures.
2. Ditch your regular pizza for whole wheat pizza
Even though pizza may be one of your favorite cheat meals, a single slice of it contains about 272 kcals. Pizza is not only high in calories but is also made of white flour. But if you simply can't do without pizzas in your meals, you could replace the white flour base with whole wheat bread. Some recommended options for toppings include pineapple, meat, sundried tomatoes, olives, pickles or just dollops of salsa. Grill the pizza to crunch and top it with hung curd instead of cheese. So, a whole wheat bread pizza would only contain about 163 kcals.
3. Swap your caramel pudding for chia pudding
Milky desserts are everyone's weakness but a 100 gm of caramel pudding contains about 146 kcals and could hamper your weight-loss goals. But if you really want to satiate your sweet tooth, you could consume the healthier alternative of caramel pudding which is chia pudding. All you need to do is replace your traditional milk with either almond or coconut milk and add chia seeds which are a good source of fiber. This recipe could also be used by people who are lactose intolerant and the fiber in chia seeds will help regulate insulin levels better than a sugar-laden snack. 100 gm of chia pudding desert only contains about 106 kcals.
4. Skip dry fruits and consume fox nuts
You've probably heard that snacking on dry fruits such as almonds and walnuts could reduce your appetite to eat unhealthy food by keeping you full. While dry fruits are definitely a healthy snack option, just half a cup of mixed dry fruits contains about 160 kcals. Fox nuts, on the other hand, are lighter, equally crunchy and can even be saut?ed to satisfaction in just a tsp of ghee or olive oil. According to Menon, half a cup of fox nuts only contains about 85 kcals since it is rich in minerals like iron, potassium and zinc.
5. Replace potato chips with zucchini chips
Potato chips are by far the most tempting snack you could munch on but they're also the most unhealthy since they're deep fried. 50 gm of potato chips contains 268 kcals which could ruin your weight loss regime. Whereas zucchini chips are a much healthier cheat meal option since they are baked, can be made really quickly and are dressed in olive oil which can easily blend with flavors of salt and spice. Moreover, 50 gm of zucchini chips contain only eight calories.
6. Try cauliflower rice instead of vegetable biryani
Menon points out that vegetable biryani requires fats such as ghee or oil to prepare and add flavor to it. A mere cup of vegetable biryani could pile on 318 calories. If you're looking for a way to reduce the number of calories in your meal while also retaining the taste, replace cauliflower rice with vegetable biryani. All you need to do to prepare this dish is finely grate cauliflower (to replace the rice) and roast it with ghee as well as other veggies. Add a dash of lemon and cilantro to enhance the flavor of the dish. A cup of cauliflower rice (with cheese and 2 tsps of ghee) only contains about 141 calories.
7. Have frozen banana and peanut butter desert instead of ice-cream
If ice creams are your biggest weakness when it comes to cheat meals, replace the desert with frozen banana and peanut butter. If you consume 200 grams of regular ice cream, you're also consuming 414 calories along with it. But if you consume frozen bananas blended with a small quantity of Greek yogurt and add a tsp of Nutella to it, you'll only consume about 230 calories with every 200 grams of serving.
8. Have sourdough burger mixed with bean tikki
Coutinho explains that most burgers are made of refined wheat and have fillings that have been deep fried in refined oils, have little or no vegetables inside and slathered with cheese and mayonnaise that are extremely inflammatory. Coutinho reommends a healthier version of burgers, "Sourdough bread slices that has tikki/cutlet made out of mixed beans (kidney bean, garbanzo beans, black beans), veggies like tomato, cucumber, onion slices and hung curd dip in between." He says that this dish is not only easier to digest but is also balanced with the required nutrients since its high on fibre and vegetarian protein. "Sourdough bread being pre-digested because of fermentation is great for diabetics too," he adds.
9. Eat healthy nachos instead of with tortilla
A plate of nachos with tortilla isn't a big deal when you're binging on this delicious cheat meal while watching your favourite Netflix show. But just one plate of nachos with tortilla contains approximately 445 kcals, according to Menon. But a replacement for this could be a healthy nacho plate of tortilla chips with baked sweet potato chips. These are easy to make, requires just a little olive oil saut?ing and mild grilling to roast to perfection. These can be topped with a mix of grated and finely cut veggies, salsa, hung curds, moderate shreds of cheese and either beans or mince-meat and just a plate of it would contain only about 255 kcals.
10.Replace Ice-Cream With Frozen Yogurt
There is no denying the fact that ice-creams are incredibly delicious and are perfect to savour during the sweltering heat. However, on a restricted diet, ice-creams are strict no-no due to their high sugar and calorie content. But when you're indulging in your cheat meal, you can opt for a similar yet healthier substitute to ice cream, which is frozen Greek yoghurt. Greek yoghurt is comparatively low in both fats and calories than the regular ice-creams and is also loaded with essential nutrients.
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