Free Days or Free Meals?

I never plan to go over, even though I do occassionally. I do plan to indulge once in a while and I will try to exercise more and plan my meals out to allow it. Feel free to look at my food diary to see what I mean.

I have a "Free Meal" day, but I still exercise that day and I plan it sensibly. Luckily, my "vices" are things that can lean towards sensible.

I do a free meal every now and then. It's usually within my calories or a little over... but it's usually something not as healthy for me and will keep me from getting the protein I need, but it keeps me in my calories and tastes delicious so that I don't jump off the wagon & end up eating it everyday! A couple days ago it was a personal size cheese pizza from Pizza Hut.

I find I go over board if I give my self a free "day". So I lean more towards a cheat meal. That way I can balance it with lighter meals and some exercise

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.

I dont have a "Free day" weekly but for holidays I do not count calories, how can you? With all the hustle & bustle its kinda hard to. But considering we just had St Pattys Day, attended a playdate, & had company over I made it my free day but really didnt go to overboard. My next one will be March 26th, my daughters "Suprise Birthday Slumber Party". Zoe gets to pick out dinner & as much as Ill pay for a cake by gosh Im going to have a piece, LOL! No one is perfect, exspecially me so I will allow myself a Freebie at times :O) Besides my journey is not a sprint, its a marathon.

I feel that when I give myself a free day I binge and it can take up to a week to get over that binge. So it is completely counter-productive for me.
If I work out really hard one day, I will allow myself a piece of candy or have a cheat meal like pizza, ect. But I try and stay away from having a day where I just eat anything I want.

How many people allow themselves a free day once a week or a free meal once a week?

I do not plan to go over, but I have gone over trust you me. When this happens I do try to get in enough exercise to make up for it. If I don't balance out I remind myself it is not the end of the world, and push on to the next day. I am not perfect and realize I will fall down. The trick is to get back up and keep moving forward. :flowerforyou:

I recognize that I will never have a body type that allows me to eat whatever I want without exercising. So, in my world, eating more means moving more, and I make this pretty non-negotiable.

My life is highly sedentary. I must have the metabolism boost from exercise in order to maintain my weight. To lose, I need even more. There are some days that I know I will eat high calorie (because of a birthday party or some other event), but I usually front load that day with exercise.

I also willingly go over calories on some days, if I have had other days during the week where I have been too far under my calorie goal. But as a practice, I try to stay within my calories every day; but I do not judge myself if I am imperfect in that practice.

Yep...a free meal helps me stay on track.

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

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...

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.

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.

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