Christmas ONEderland (CLOSED)

I had a bit of a challenge and I'm hoping you guys can offer advice!

I tend to have big dinners with the family on Sunday. Mashed potatoes, steak/roast, veggies, etc. It's the one day of the week I have tons of trouble with.

Here's what I'm thinking:

- I eat a little less during the week, and save calories for Sunday
- I eat and enjoy my family dinner, without the guilt associated with indulgence

Has anyone had any success managing their calories over a week-long period, rather than looking at them day-by-day? I'm thining that if this is supposed to be a "lifestyle change" and not just a "diet", I need to find a way to work it in to my everyday life. My Sunday dinner is something I cherish and look forward to. I don't want to have to work it out of my life in order to get down to my goal weight. There has to be some kind of a way to have balance, right?

What do you guys think?

Lisa
aka Prettypooks

What day do you weigh in each week? I ask because I used to weigh in on Mondays but I noticed my eating habits weren't as good on the weekends, so I started weighing in on Friday mornings instead. Then, I allow myself ONE MEAL during the weekend where I don't have to count the calories (I still log everything, but I don't worry about going over by a few hundred calories). Then I figure out how much I went over by that day (say 300 calories over) and I take those calories out of the weekdays (so I'd take out 100 calories from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). Then on Friday, I weigh and I still see a loss so far. I hope this makes sense!

Here's what I mean... I stick to 1200 cal/day. That is 8400 cal/week. So here is what one week may look like (my weeks start on Friday, weigh in day)

Friday - 1200 calories
Saturday - 1200 calories
Sunday - 1500 calories
Monday - 1100 calories
Tuesday - 1100 calories
Wednesday - 1100 calories
Thursday - 1200 calories
Friday - weigh in & start week over

I don't always go over on the weekends, so usually I am still doing 1200/day. Also, I refuse to count calories for holiday dinners. I count Thanksgiving, Christmas, anniversary, and my birthday as "holidays". So FOUR days PER YEAR I am probably going to go WAY over on calories (I'll log breakfast & lunch and I'll eat very light, but I won't even log dinner on those four days. I will probably see a small gain the next weigh in, but it should be easy to re-lose. I figure if I'm eating at a deficit 361 days a year and eating at maintenance (or even a little more than maintenance) the other 4, I should still see an overall loss. Hope this helps!