Free Days or Free Meals?

happy_vegan

i'm on vacation so it's been so hard especially with friends and going out drinking to not go over. (i have been)
so right now i'm trying not to freak out about it
BUT
it's killing me!!! i love how i feel when i've worked out and eaten right... i feel like a bloated whale right now. i can't wait to get back home! yesterday i walked 10 miles around the city (just did the maps on google) so i burned JUST ENOUGH calories to stay at 1200...yikes. it's hard.

i don't like free days - and i feel like i'm not alone in this. they're not worth it!!

happy_vegan

There's no such thing as a free day or meal. You pay for it, either by not losing for the week, gaining for the week, or with good planning, by saving a little each day to pay for it.

Personally I recommend the last one; I have days under and days over my goal every week. As long as they all balance out for a weekly average, I'm good with it, and so is my weight loss.

love this

lajuice24

There's no such thing as a free day or meal. You pay for it, either by not losing for the week, gaining for the week, or with good planning, by saving a little each day to pay for it.

Personally I recommend the last one; I have days under and days over my goal every week. As long as they all balance out for a weekly average, I'm good with it, and so is my weight loss.

I agree with this. I try to plan those days where I may indulge more and make sure it is balanced and I make sure i have gotten my work out in that day

willnorton

we are addicted to food..just like the alcoholics and the crack heads...

ok.....a guy is trying to quit smoking crack, should he allow himself to smoke crack just once a week???

an alcoholic is trying to get sober so he wont keep killing his wife and small children...should he be able to go to the bar and have a free day of drinking once a week.....

a guy is addicted to child abuse...I wont even go there..

we are food addicts...should we just draw the line and eat healthy and get plenty of exercise....not a diet....not a free day from our diet....we should never be on "a diet" because diets FAIL.....about 95 % of all diets fail...

change your life and dont call it a diet anymore....just a new lifestyle of living...if you dont, when you get to the end of your diet, you will start gaining back the weight you lost on your "diet"..

i do believe we are just as bad as the alcoholics and the crack addicts just to name a few....what is addiction????
we are addicted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

accept that and change your lifestyle, stop dieting.....eat whats good for you and know eating crap will get you and keep you exactly where you started from...

I dont mean to be harsh but i have had a terrible problem and have accepted that im a foodaholic.....
I try to eat right and exercise.....

I started at 500 pounds...I never want to go back there ever again..

i have high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes because of my life style..

i have been on every diet known to man....lost and gained and lost and gained.....

you are very special to your family and probably many other people......

get yourself well and try to cure or control your addiction...and when you get healthy and in the right place, I believe like other normal people I know, you can have a treat every now and then...
but know just like I have been told many times, once you have been diagnosed as a diabetic, you will ALWAYS be a diabetic but you hopefully will get to the point you are controlling yourself with the proper lifestyle...

good luck to you and I surely didnt mean to be harsh or rude...take my comments like we all take comments.....digest them and take what you want to take from them....

good luck whatever you do....your family will appreciate it...

army_cobra

It is good for you to have a cheat day and when i say a cheat day i dont mean go out and pig out at fast food places all day long. Go to a good restaurant to eat out at. Stay away from fast food places those things are the devil

kkellam1

Never. I don't cheat or do free meals because I think I would risk losing my motivation. I changed my way of eating in order to make changes. I don't feel like I am denying myself things, I feel like I am making way better choices than before. If I cheat, that tells me that there is something to cheat from. To me that's not an acceptable mindset. Then i would start making deals with myself and compromising/justifying. I made myself a plan that I can live with, I really enjoy the things that I eat and I never, ever approach the calorie limit for the day.

I can't say that this is how others should be, but it's the only mindset that works for me personally. In past weight loss attempts I have felt denied and that's what has made them diificult and ultimately fail. This time I really like my lifestyle and my food plan and I haven't had any touble sticking to it.

I will admit that my diet is kind of boring and, as a person who LOVES to cook, I miss the adventure of food. However I have managed to change my relationship with food and look at it as fuel for my body, not entertainment or a social activity. Maybe one day when I am maintenance mode I can relearn how to eat for fun and still be healthy.

believe22

I don't do free meals or days.
I'm making a lifestyle change and I dont plan on having free days for the rest of my life. If I do go out to a resteraunt or whatever, I choose the healthiest option I can.

LJCannon

I have a free day every week. I find that each week I splurg less because after you have been eating so good for so long when you eat crap you feel like crap. But some foods are just worth it for 1 day.

It is so true that 'When you eat crap, you feel like crap' and the longer I am on this Journey the more true it gets. Some things that I used to think were 'worth it' really are not any more.

taso42_DELETED

You hit on a controversial topic! Personally I have a free day (which has really morphed into "2 free meals per week"). I believe in it and advocate it. Some of the benefits are
psychology: it's easier to go on with the healthy lifestyle if you know you can splurge now and then.
metabolism: after weeks of calorie deficit your metabolism will want to slow down and adjust to the lower intake. having a day each week of higher calories will amp up the metabolism just a bit and give your body a signal that it should burn fat, not store it.

fattybumchum22

again i have a cheat day every two weeks! i think its nice to just not have to worry about calories and the like. i normally still in put to mfp but even this week with my cheat day this week im still under my NET calorie per week!

I think you have to figure out what works for you and go from there!

Wendy