Do you allow yourself a day off?

WickyDunn

Just wondering if people do this? Not go totally overkill with eating everything in sight but do you allow yourself a day when you just don't count?

shadowofender

No. Even if I recognize that it's ok to go over sometimes, that in th normal course of living I can't be perfect every day, I still log those days that are over, to the best of my ability.

pittjenn

A whole day unchecked is a lot of damage for me

Instead, I have more luck allowing myself one meal without worries. So if I have an upcoming date, or girls night out, I make sure my diet is spot-on all week, and let myself have that one meal with no counting. And I try not to do that more than a couple times a month, because it's just too easy for me to go overboard.

glwage

I absolutely do and it hasn't derailed me one bit. It's a sanity issue!
Of course you can't go completely of the reservation.....

carlamenzione

i still track but i allow myself one cheat meal a week. not a cheat day but a cheat meal. and i usually dont work out that day, which i know i should, but i jus t use it as a day to unwind. its usually sunday

kristen6350

I do it every once in a while - especially now that I KNOW what things "cost". I never go overboard but I just don't log it and that's ok. 1 day EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, won't hurt. Now, if 1 day leads into another, into another, then you have a problem.

Liftng4Lis

Nope.

Lizabelle1212

I used to do that. Every Friday, but it was wreaking havoc on my progress because I wasn't paying attention at ALL to what I was eating for that day. This also made it kind of difficult to get back on track the next day, so my whole weekend was starting to be pretty crappy and was undoing all my hard work. So, what I do now is on Friday, just change my calorie goal from "lose 2lb per week" to "lose 0.5lb per week" or SOMETIMES I set it at maintenance, so that way, I get to eat more and it feels like a cheat day, but I'm still staying accountable enough that I'm not undoing any of my progress. This usually results in me weighing less on Monday than I did on Friday, which is a HUGE deal for me. In the past, when I allowed myself a free-for-all on Friday, I'd always start Mondays out weighing a couple pounds more, from all the extra calories plus the bloat than came along with it. It would take me until the following Friday to get those pounds back off.

lemurcat12

I took a week without counting at Christmas, but generally not.

When I was on lower calories I did allow myself one day where I would not worry about going over (although not go nuts or anything, as you said--basically I might go out to dinner and not stress about trying to fit it into my plan), but I still logged. I don't find logging particularly burdensome, though--I think I'd eat similarly whether I did or not, and like to have accurate numbers so I can in theory know my TDEE.

Seraphina_Rowan

To put it simply, no.

Everything I do is tracked, I don't believe in the whole ''allowing yourself a day off'' Why? Because your body doesn't know that. But then again I eat whatever I want as long as it fits into my day But, that is solely my opinion for myself and it's perfectly fine for others to have another view point. If you decide you want to do that then do it, you don't need to get confirmation from others. Do what makes you happy

elphie754

WickyDunn wrote: »

Just wondering if people do this? Not go totally overkill with eating everything in sight but do you allow yourself a day when you just don't count?

No. Although there are days where I will eat and then log later. Even if I eat over my goal, I make sure to log it and move on.

malibu927

The only time I didn't count was Thanksgiving Day and the week of Christmas. Otherwise, everything gets logged. If I go over, that's life, such as yesterday when I went out to lunch and had fast food for dinner, thus putting me 400 over my goal. One day enjoying yourself won't do any harm...it's when they add up and restrict you from losing that it becomes a problem.

deksgrl

Sure. It's just life. But, I don't let the excuses or justifications begin like, "Oh, I've already blown it for today so might as well eat whatever I want", or "Well I've already blown it today and yesterday and the day before so might as well start back on it Monday".

rides4sanity

I take Sunday off. It's usually date day with hubby as the kids at grandparents after church until evening. I eat breakfast as usual. Then we do lunch out or a movie with popcorn, but I get back on plan the next day. If I crave something during the week. I just tell myself I can have it on Sunday if I really want it. By Sunday, I've often forgotten about it.

klkateri

I used to take Sunday as a "cheat" day but after taking a cheat month and a half and gaining 10lbs back that I worked very hard to lose prior to the holiday I don't want to take any days off till i lose those ten plus another ten are off!! Then, maybe I'll get back to a once a week or once every other week cheat day but right now with trying to get back on track its just too tempting to fall off again.

yopeeps025

That would defeat the purpose of calorie counting.

dfranch

There are days I go over, but I always try to log it. If I can I try to make up for it over the next few days. Over the holidays, I'd bank some calories for a blowout day (Thanksgiving, X-mas, New Years).

gothchiq

Not any more. Tried it a couple times, found an amazing amount of weight returned! Not just water; takes weeks to burn it back off again. Sigh. I am just too short and old to get away with anything. Sux. I'm learning to locate and appreciate new flavors of tea in order to have that taste satisfaction without ruining my body.

AmyRhubarb

Not really, although there are occasional days where I might not log beyond breakfast - like over Christmas, or big family gatherings where the food is all homemade, we're grazing all day long and it's just too much to try and guesswork all the foods I ate... But no matter what, logging or not, I make sure I'm not stuffing myself - not logging does not equal a free-for-all for me, because I know it will make me feel miserable. I hate that over-full feeling I get when I keep eating beyond satisfied/full, but keep going because the food is yummy. I guess that's a good habit I've developed over the years, stopping when I know I should.

But yeah - last weekend at my uncle's 80th b-day party, I ate all the foods, enjoyed everything, even had cake - a small piece the first time because I knew I didn't have room for much more after lunch. And hours later when we were all still visiting and having a good time, I had another small piece of cake. I eat what I want, but in reasonable amounts.

TimothyFish

Yes. I don't do it every week or even every month, but a day off once in a while isn't going to hurt anything.

Arliah

There are days (today is one of those, actually), where I will go out with a girlfriend to a local restaurant that does not list nutrition or calories. What I do in cases like this is to save as many calories as I can for dinner and then log it to the best of my ability.

radiosilents

Today I'm having "a day" – my body wants to eat ALL the food. I'm not going totally gonzo, but I have already eaten more cookies than I should have. Even on "off" days, I log everything. I feel I owe that to myself and the hard work I have done so far. It keeps me honest and gives me a little control on a day when I don't feel like I have much otherwise.

deksgrl

deksgrl wrote: »

Sure. It's just life. But, I don't let the excuses or justifications begin like, "Oh, I've already blown it for today so might as well eat whatever I want", or "Well I've already blown it today and yesterday and the day before so might as well start back on it Monday".

I'll also note that, I don't do this every week, just once in awhile. And I have been tracking long enough to have a general idea of how many calories I'm eating so it's not a total blowout to gain weight on.

jbee27

kristen6350 wrote: »

I do it every once in a while - especially now that I KNOW what things "cost". I never go overboard but I just don't log it and that's ok. 1 day EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, won't hurt. Now, if 1 day leads into another, into another, then you have a problem.

This!

Now that I think I hopefully have a better handle on calories/nutrition, I think it is a healthy experiment to let myself not track for a day or two every once in awhile and see where I land. I think of it as baby steps into a true lifestyle change of healthy choices, as I certainly don't plan on meticulously calorie counting every day for the rest of my life.

HOWEVER, I don't believe I was ever a true binger, in the sense that I see a lot of people on this site talking about binge eating, so I think that for those that find themselves with those tendencies allowing a day off, or a cheat meal/day, could be much more sabotaging of their efforts.

ljones27uk

No. One day off could undo the wholes weeks calorie deficit, or more.. Some days I might take in more calories than target, but that's because something's going on (wedding, lads night out etc) but if not, I don't give myself one day off

GothyFaery

I allow myself to go over, sort of, on Saturdays but I still count (I say sort of because I know I'm going to go over and make up for it every other day of the week and I'm almost always good for the week).

Only times I don't log are:
-On vacations because I want to enjoy myself and not think about food.
-When I'm sick because I want to give my body everything it needs to get better
-Holidays/birthdays because... foodz and CAKE

girlviernes

Sometimes I raise my calorie goal closer to maintenance, for example when I went home for the holidays I raised by goal from 1800 to 2300 per day. I also did this more recently when I had a very hungry day around my TOM. But I always log as best as I can.

Shellys_Start

I'm new, just a couple of weeks in, but I don't think I'll be doing any days off for a long time. For me personally I have realized that on my own I cannot manage to live anything close to a healthy lifestyle. I'm afraid if I cross the line of taking a day off it would be easier to take the next one and the next one and so on. I'd rather track everything I eat. If I go over my calories, have a slip-up, whatever, I'd rather see it there in my diary and know I made a bad choice but feel more accountable for it.

AmandaHugginkiss

I try to live my life with a certain amount of flexibility, so yes. I allow myself breaks in diet and exercise. Getting set back by a week is not that significant in the grand scheme of things. So you reach your goal a couple weeks later than planned on some arbitrary schedule. Is it really that big a deal? I don't think so. I'm not willing to give up happy moderation in favor of neurosis.

smantha32

shadowofender wrote: »

No. Even if I recognize that it's ok to go over sometimes, that in th normal course of living I can't be perfect every day, I still log those days that are over, to the best of my ability.

Me too.

Alidecker

There are days I don't count, but it is really just one meal that is bad. If I have a fun night out planned, I try and eat really healthy for breakfast and lunch, get a good workout in and then I don't worry so much. I don't log those days or at least those meals, usually it ends up being snacks and I don't track every chip I eat and every tablespoon of dip or what kind of pizza and how much of it. I try and not go extremely crazy, but sometimes it happens.