I don't like the "cheat" word either. It implies dishonesty, and I am accountable for what I eat and how it affects my weight. I do have days where I've eaten poorly and days where I've eaten well, but that's where I leave it and simply try to improve.

That's why I calorie count, so anything can be on plan in moderation. And I deliberately have at least one high calorie day a week, to keep my body guessing and get my leptin levels up. It's a plan, not a cheat!

I don't keep my calories so low that an occasional treat would deprive me of nutrients, either. Heck, seems like even on my now rare binge, I'm usually binge eating healthy whole, unprocessed foods now.

And yeah, occasionally, pizza is on plan. I'd give up ice cream for life before I'd give up pizza. Thin crust veggie, my favorite, is not all that horrible for calories either.

Here's the thing. You can still overeat totally whole, unprocessed, nutritious food and gain weight! It's a question of quantity. There's nothing unhealthy about raw nuts, for instance, they contain great nutrients. So does fruit, veggies, meat, fish, shellfish, poultry, etc... but if you eat too much quality fuel, you can still get fat or stay fat!

A "treat" for me might be having some toasted walnuts on my salad. It might be a container of plain Greek Yogurt with some added honey. It might be occasionally cooking my eggs with butter.

It could also be a treat at utter binge level... like eating two pounds of fresh cherries at a go... something I have done in the past! Or over-consuming my favorite combo of dried apricots, unsweetened coconut and cashews. Or eating three servings of almond butter at a time instead of one. Nutritious, but any of these eaten in excess, will keep the fat on. Likewise for grilled shrimp... another thing I love, but can easily eat to excess.

So don't assume that straying from a plan means consumption of non-nutritious junk, because it doesn't always mean that. I don't have junk in my house, but I still can manage to eat excess calories on occasion and it's all blamed nutritious food. But excess is excess and I call a spade a spade and own up to it when I do it.

Mind you, I agree, that when one cuts calories a lot, it's important to have as many of those be nutritious as possible. I too will crave my veggies if I don't have enough of them! (Usually not a problem...)

But that doesn't mean that you can't have an occasional serving of something that's not particularly nutritious from time to time. I keep my calories at a good enough level that I get a blamed lot of nutrition from my every day foods, so I don't worry if I have an occasional ice cream, or pizza or candy bar or what have you. The key for me is to keep the junk VERY occasional, count the calories and enjoy it.

I deleted some posts that were part of a disagreement that went too far and turned into insults.

Please stay on topic and please be nice.