First off, sorry if this is in the wrong forum. It doesn't really fit into Weight Gain/Loss, and it's not a "whats for dinner" recipe, so I put it here.

BACKGROUND
I used to plan 1 cheat meal every week. A pizza, a pint ice cream, and about a half gallon of milk between myself and fiance. We had this every friday night, without fail. It was something we looked forward too, and we would always save our hardest/longest, most intense workout for that day. I would rationalize it by saying "a weekly cheat meal throws off your metabolism and kicks it into overdrive to digest that kind of food", or "I really earned it after that workout... I need this 2,500 calories after that shit", or "I just can't handle eating the same boring, healthy foods forever". I realize now that it was a load of horseshit. Just excuses I was making for my own purposes of self-indulgence. It prevented me from developing true self-control with my eating habits.

Recently I've gotten my woman and I on a much healthier diet. More veggies and greens, prepping salads for a whole week, eating better quality meat, and timing meals for a proper hormone response. I told her this is how I want to raise my kids, eating healthy, so it needs to be a lifestyle and not just a phase or fad diet. I've also stopped screwing around with low carb and carb cycling because, as one of the vets here put it, that stuff is really only necessary if you need to get under a certain BF percentage, maybe 8% or less.

WHERE I AM NOW
I'm happy with my current bodyfat percentage, and I've been going carb crazy yet still staying lean! I can partly attribute this to a moving job I picked up on the weekends that has me burning massive calories. But more importantly, tracking calories/macros with MyFitnessPal has allowed me to match food intake to calculated TDEE & activity level. Now I eat a breakfast heavy in complex whole-wheat carbs (1200-1500 cals), with a tapering off of carb intake towards the evening, where I get my veggies/salads in.

Recently I was working non-stop on a deadline for my thesis; I simply didn't have time to cook dinner, there wasn't anything readily available in the kitchen, and my woman had her own schoolwork to do that night. I said fuck it, lets get our favorite pizza, we both need to work and neither of us have time to fix a proper dinner. Then I realized, THIS is what a cheat meal is for! Those times when it just isn't possible to cook, and other parts of your life absolutely MUST take a priority. We had gone almost 3 weeks without junk food, so I was happy with my decision.

MY POINT
I let my circumstances dictate the cheat meal, instead of structuring it into my weekly menu. Do everything you can to eat healthy all the time, then when shit hits the fan and you just don't have time or can't handle the pressure, eat the slop and enjoy it. Just don't make a habit out that or use it as an excuse, make sure you eat healthy for weeks at a time and you'll be fine.

I know that when we go visit her folks for 4th of July weekend it'll be like taking an alcoholic to a bar... southern fried food, white bread, cake and pies everywhere, cookies in the kitchen, fast food every day, etc. So I said lets agree to have ONE cheat meal over the course of the visit. This is a realistic comprise that accommodates the circumstances we'll find ourselves in, while still working on self-control and finding healthy options when it seems like there aren't any.

I'm not saying everyone should do this, but it's been working for me, and I wanted to share my experience with the community so that maybe someone else could benefit from this.