In this instructional video, JJ Virgin challenges the concept of "cheat days" by presenting five healthier food swaps that mimic indulgent favorites while delivering better nutrition. She begins by dismissing traditional cheat days and introduces low‑sugar, high‑protein alternatives for soda, yogurt‑based "flips," cereal, syrup, puddings, and bagels. For each category she recommends specific commercial products (e.g., Sweet Drops, Zevia, Olipop for soda; Chobani Zero Sugar yogurt, Catalina Crunch cereal, RX Sugar Syrup, Simply Delish puddings, Better Bagel) and explains how to use them in simple recipes or as direct replacements. Nutritional details such as net carbs, calories, protein, and fiber are highlighted to illustrate the health benefits. The video ends with a teaser for a follow‑up on strategies to curb cravings. The overall tone is conversational, enthusiastic, and instructional, aiming to empower viewers to enjoy "cheat‑like" foods without the typical sugar and calorie penalties.
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I get asked all the time, what do you do on your cheat days? Here's the reality, I don't believe in cheat days. I've actually found foods that feel like you're cheating— bagels, cereal, syrup, pudding— but they're healthy for you. Want to hear more? I'm going to flip the script for you on what indulgence can look like and show you how you can eat foods that feel like you're cheating that are good for you. Full disclosure, I love fizz. I love sparkling stuff, and I especially love soda. Back in the day, I was a full-blown diet soda addict. So what do you do with that? Do you drink regular soda? Do you drink diet soda? Actually, you drink neither. I've got a way better recommendation for you. So first off, there are these amazing little Sweet Drops that you can add to sparkling water, and it will taste just like a soda. Next thing that you can do, I'm totally hooked on these, are Zevia. Zevia comes in a host of flavors and it's stevia-sweetened soda. And then this is my hubby's favorite, Olipop. They've got them in orange, they've got them in Coke, they've got them in root beer, all sorts of flavors. They're a prebiotic soda that is good for you. So if you're one of those people like me that just loves the soda, here's how you can have your soda and feel good about it. All right, I was at the store and they had this cookies and cream yogurt. It was called a Flip. Where it had Greek-style yogurt and cookies with it. It was like 19 grams of sugar. Here's how you can make something just like that without the 19 grams of sugar and crank the protein up too. So you get Chobani zero sugar yogurt. Now this is great if you're not dairy intolerant. It's Greek-style yogurt, high in protein. They've got all sorts of great flavors, but I especially love cookies and cream. And then you get Catalina Crunch. This is a high protein, high fiber cereal, 110 calories in a half cup. But in that you're getting like 10 grams of protein, I think 10 grams of fiber, and around there. So all you do is take your yogurt and top it with your Catalina Crunch. Now here's some other things I love to use Catalina Crunch for. I make an amazing pie crust out of this. So I do a dairy-free cheesecake, and you can also do this just to make regular fruit pies. And I will use the graham cracker crust, and I'll use a little ghee, and it is Amazing. It's a high protein crust. You can also make a really amazing smoothie and throw a little bit of this on top to crank up the protein and crank up the fiber. So this is one of these things I used to love cereal growing up, especially Golden Grahams. This is my replacement. What if I told you there was a syrup you could use that would actually lower your blood sugar instead of hijacking it? Yep. This is called RX Sugar Syrup. It is amazing. And when you use this, about 10 grams of this, it sweetens stuff up without the calories. And it actually lowers the blood sugar response. It's from a rare sugar. It's actually good for you. So these are things that you can put into your yogurt. You can add them into your smoothie. You can put them on desserts and they are guilt-free and actually good for you. So I recently discovered these little Simply Delish puddings that I am just totally hooked on. They're basically cornstarch and erythritol with a little bit of flavoring, whether it's stevia and vanilla or cocoa powder and stevia. And here's what I do with them. They are super low calorie and basically 4 grams of net carbs. So what I do is I take one of them and I add in some of my Reignite Wellness collagen peptides to pump it up a little bit. And you make this thing and it takes like 5 minutes in the fridge to set. I mean, they set almost immediately. So I make it, I add in a little bit of one of my nut milks. I like to use the flax milk because that's got some protein in it too. I add in my collagen protein peptides and then I throw on top a little bit of Coco Whip. This is the greatest stuff. I'll add in like 2 tablespoons of Coco Whip. I'll sprinkle on a couple of Lily's dark chocolate chips. They've got no, no sugar. And if you really want to go crazy, you can add in a little bit of Dark Chocolate RX Sugar over the top. All right. You probably never thought I was going to talk about bagels, except one of my friends turned me on to Better Buns. First of all, I had to buy it just for the name alone. Come on. But then I found out they have a lot of different things with gluten in them. So if you're not gluten intolerant, these could be great. But I was looking for the gluten-free and I found The Better Bagel. And this thing is amazing. So in one of these bagels, I'll show you one. We'll have show and tell. There are 3 grams of net carbs, 110 calories, 10 grams of protein, and get this, 35, 35 grams of fiber. Here's what it looks like. You cut it in half, you toast it, you get a massive fiber hit. It's basically fermented plant protein and psyllium husk fiber. And if you're again not gluten intolerant, they've got some other amazing things like pretzel rolls and brioche as well. All right, so there's the inside scoop on the best cheap foods. You can see they're not really cheap foods, but here's the thing. How about we tackle what's really going on here? The cravings. Watch this next video to learn simple and effective strategies to curb your sweet tooth and take control of your cravings for good.
