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Monday, December 12, 2011

to free or not to free








to free or not to free....that is the question.

when i read about the FREE DAY in the BFL book, i skimmed through those pages and thought to myself, "oh, no.... not for me." i wrote off the free day as something boys who were trying to pile on muscle could enjoy...but not chubby girls trying to lose weight.

but when i decided to really DO the BFL program i decided to REALLY DO it.... all of it. and see what happened.

as all my imaginary blog readers know, i lost 10 lb week one... and 2 lb week 2. yes, yes i know... week 1 was NOT 10 lb of fat... it was water and _______ (insert any of the other million bubble-bursting reasons).

week 2 i lost 2 lb. it takes 3500 calories to burn one pound. so in one week i some how had a deficit of 7000 calories. say what??? wow.

and i did it WITH a free day. when talking about the FREE DAY, the BFL book says to have an OFF DAY...and goes on to say that not only does this mean NO exercise, but also no food restrictions. it even says to eat a huge stack of blueberry pancakes with syrup for breakfast if you want.

supposedly this is a good idea because your body gets to recuperate. also, this spike in calories for the day tricks your body into thinking that you are not really on a diet and stops you from going into "starvation mode" blah blah blah (us fat girls could write books about this metabolism stuff)

i really live up my free day. live.it.up. i wake up sunday, pee, strip, stand on scale.... do a happy dance and then have whatEVER i want for breakfast (two weeks in a row it has included gum drops).

but this is part of the reason i didnt want to do a free day. because it allows me to binge. which is bad bad bad. right? it doesnt address the root of the problem which is my addiction to food. and if i dont fix that any weight loss will be temporary. but here's the thing... dont they like have rehab programs for people addicted to heroin and stuff where they actually GIVE them small doses of heroin to wean them off drugs so they CAN actually recover and kick their habit?? this does really happen, right? im not making it up?

and thats how it is... a person who is addicted to heroin would not get though a single day of rehab if they didnt get SOME heroin.... well let me tell you. i would not get through a WEEK of my diet and exercising if i didnt have the light at the end of the tunnel (FREE DAY). it gets me through. i start to want to give up around thursday... and by saturday i am just tired.

not so much of eating healthy.... just tired of all the energy that goes into it. all the planning and thinking and cooking.... i just need a breather.

FREE DAY is my breather. my reset button.

so when i step off the scale sunday and do my happy dance i open the fridge, breathe a sigh of relief and say to myself, "free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, i am free at last!"

6 comments:

Monica (Weight Loss Journey) said...

That's One thing i have learned from Weight Watcher is allowing to have a free Day is what we need, IT helps us realize that this is not a "Diet" its a lifestyle change, It took me Weeks before I learn that its okay to treat my self on a specific day,it took me a while but you really learn to appreciate them!

Amy said...

Its funny about the tricking your body into thinking it is not in starvation mode... after an OFF day, I often find myself loosing a little weight after stepping on the scale the next day. The trick is to just not have a free day for lots of days in a row... which is my problem!

Forty Pound Sack said...

Hmmmmm, sounds like a neat trick! Will have to look into that one ~

Jennifer said...

I cannot even tell you how excited I am to "know" someone else doing this program. When I see I have a comment from you I get all excited because I know you really "get" it! I have been doing lots of thinking about free day and I agree with you 100%. Its a new train of thought for me but I reallllllllllllllly think that having that light at the end of the tunnel (free) day is what makes this plan work, at least for people like me. And if it makes you feel any better... when I first joined the gym and they gave me an eating plan on paper, all I saw was blah blah blah, and "give yourself one day off to eat as you please". So apparently this is something I should have been looking into all this time. It makes the battle so much less difficult knowing that free day is coming up, even if its 6 days away. Its still coming!

I was thinking today as I was doing my lower body workout (sorry this is turning into a novel....) that I should ask you about some of the things I feel unsure about on the plan and see what you think. Ready?

1) what weights do you use for your sets?

2) if you eat cottage cheese is a serving a cup or a half of a cup? I am always afraid I am eating too much. Weigh day is Wednesday so I guess I will find out soon enough.

3) Have you lost some of your cravings? It dawned on me that because I am so focused on what to prepare for my next meal that I havent really been focused on what I am missing out on. Its either that or all this talk in the book about how the cravings will go away if you eat properly is actually true...could it be????

4)Can you give me an idea what you are eating in a day?

5) What kind of cardio are you doing?

I hope you are not annoyed that I am asking so many questions but like I say, I am jsut so excited that someone is on the plan!

You are doing well. 2.2 lbs for week 2 is awesome, especially after such a large loss your first week. Keep up the great work! Look forward to hearing from you. Feel free to email me if that would be easier.

Jennifer

Skye-Lynn said...

This has always been a huge problem for me. Well, let me clarify. Not the free day. Just the days afterwards.

I always feel so darn guilty that it's really difficult for me to get back on track. I am definitely an all or nothing type of girl.

But I definitely agree that it's needed. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to enjoy them.

In the mean time, keep up the great job! I'm very proud of you!!

Anonymous said...

First time for me in your blog, and let me say it is amazing, and definetly gonna read some of your post.

about free day it is amazing idea, i found that if i had a free day every week that made me commit to my diet for longer time.
and also exercising.

at the beginning i started to feel some guilt, and it is not good while you are on diet, so i trained my self that no matter how i ate on free day there is always next day to eat healthy, exercise, and make things correct.

and after many weeks i learned what to eat on free day, i also added fruit and vegetables next to regular food, drink water.

The most amazing thing in free day is eating same food with family at the same table :))