Do you guys give yourself a day off?

depends on my week and my mood, everyday is a fight and I am just luck if I follow through. I try not to give my self planned breaks unless I know their is an event, like for our engagement party i told my sel that whole week I can eat anything I want, of course that day got there and I was so stressed about making sure I said high to everyone that I was at like 600 calories for the whole day when i got home that night.
Anyways as far as exersize gose I dod not have a rutine yet, I just try to get in there every evening after work and atleast once over the weekend.

I am a lifelong dieter...my current approach is slow and steady wins the race. I don't want to give myself a day off from tracking my calories (and NOT going over) because I fear it would just make me continue to overeat the next day and the next.
My exercise schedule doesn't change. It's m-f for one hour, with friends. Because we do it together first thing in the morning, it gets done. We all agree that if another person wasn't waiting for us, it wouldn't happen. We've been doing it 10 months now.
I like the structure of the weekday and find it easier to handle than the weekend....for me, structure and somewhat of a daily schedule works. I can't just depend on what I 'feel' like doing.

In terms of food, I don't give myself a whole day off per say, but I do allow myself one planned cheat meal a week (so on that day there is a chance I do go over on calories). I've read that this can be good for your metabolism (as well as psychologically beneficial).

There are, of course, a couple stipulations. I've been eating really healthy the rest of the week (my daily calories rarely consist of any type of junk food even if it's budgeted into my daily allowance) - so the rest of the week is super healthy foods (This is probably why I need a cheat once in a while). Also, the cheat meal should be planned in advance. This is crucial so that you don't cheat on just anything (and it keeps you motivated!). The rest of the week - and the rest of the day even - is all by the books though.

My trainer advised me to do this, and I read about it in Men's Health magazine. Seems like a decent compromise to me!

My problem is once I give myself permission to 'go wild ' this one day....it turns into 2 weeks. We didnt get to where we are because we have made good choices in the past.

I am trying (this time) to look at this as a healthy change in my eating habits. I find the cheeseburger I make at home with LF beef and LF cheese and a whole grain roll is more satisfying than that fake micky dees cheeseburger. Also I think there is something, maybe the sodium, that makes me continue to eat-and eat-and eat after a fast food meal. One night I was up until 2 am eating! I go to bed at 9pm normally.

Anyway, we have to make our choice-then live with them.

:bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

I take one full day off a week from exercise. My trainer tells me you need to take at least 1 day off a week to give your body some time to rest.

As for eating, I usually do only 1 cheat meal, not day, a week. And even then I try not to go overboard- LOL.

I always take Sunday off from exercising. I didn't go to the gym today like I usually do, but I had put in 6 hours already this week, which is what I usually do including Saturday. Food-wise, Tuesday is one of my Zumba days at the gym, which burns a lot of calories, so I let myself "splurge" by getting something from Taco Bell on that day. But it's planned, and if I don't get it then, I don't go another day. My family also goes out a couple times a week, but I try to eat pretty healthy. And I always journal, no matter what I've eaten so that I can't pretend it didn't happen.

I do take one day off from exercise and also with food. Once a week I get something that I love but only one meal, I don't mess up the whole day


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I had to go out to eat today...... .

Never going to lose weight this way.

I always take a break from exercise on Sunday. But I don't do a true "break" from my food--I might have a little more of something healthy though--like 2 yogurts in day instead of 1 or an extra big banana smoothie!

When AF rolls in to town, there's noooo stopping my eating for a day or so. I just TRY really hard to at least get some exercise in there while I'm eating myself silly. AND I try not to eat totally bad food those days...I just eat a lot more than I'm supossed to lol

As a person who almost ate everything in the kitchen a few days ago for this reason, I understand.