Every dieters nightmare is being tempted by that donut in the office breakroom or decadent death by chocolate cake at a house warming. Whatever your weakness is, does cheating mean your diet is over?

Much like relationships, diets have their ups and downs. If you can start thinking of your diet as a long term relationship, rather than a marathon you have to run to get into that special outfit or through an event, you’ll be prepared for the highs and lows, and have the tools by your side to help you reach your goals.

No relationship can stand on it’s own, the relationship becomes toxic. Just think of those friends that suddenly have a new boyfriend and you never hear from them. They cut themselves off from family and friends only to find out down the road that they need those other outlets and support systems. They come running back to you when the relationship ends, desperately trying to rebuild what they knocked down. With diets, we often times try to go cold turkey, shutting off all access to the foods we have categorized as evil, dirty weight loss killers, only to find ourselves running back and feeling like failures.

Here’s a new weight loss plan. When you are creating your meal plan for the week, allow 10% of your meals to be cheaters. That means if you are eating 5/6 times a day, 4 times a week you can go for something that might be a little less healthy. Use these three tips to help you work your cheating foods into your overall plan:

Replace With Healthy(ier) Alternatives – Enjoy your guilt free cheat meal by replacing a traditionally fattening food with a healthier alternative: @TechyDad offers insight on Twitter: More often I ration cheating foods or replace them with healthy taste-a-likes. e.g. Fat free frozen yogurt instead of ice cream.

Smaller Packaging – Take advantage of your favorite foods that come in snack size or single serving packages. When you open a normal bag of chips, it’s often hard to stop, but if you start with a bag that contains a set portion, you know you can stay in control.

Combine Your Cheat Meals With Weight Loss Goals – If you don’t quite trust yourself yet, use your cheat meals as a reward for hitting weight loss or fitness goals. Set a goal, and once you reach it, plan a meal that includes one of your favorite foods.

You can incorporate your favorite foods into your weight loss plan and still see results as @bethanymeyer tells us “I used to cheat maybe once every couple weeks, but now that the weight is off it’s like twice a week. Still maintaining though!” Best of all, you won’t feel guilty and decide to just give up.

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