Does having a free day while dieting ruin the diet? Does a free day set you back while dieting? What impact does a free day have on a diet? Does a free day make it harder to get back on track with a diet?
I'm more than eight months into a year long diet with the goal of loosing 40 pounds. I'm down 33 pounds and I see no reason that I wouldn't make my goal. I plan to continue my diet after meeting that goal and loose another 20 pounds, putting me in a healthy weight range for my height and age.
I greatly relaxed my diet every weekend. I push hard to loose weight for five days and then I take two days off of exercise and a structured diet. I eat what I want, as long as it doesn't conflict with the general boundaries of my diet. My general boundaries are that the foods have to be vegan.
Monday through Friday I don't eat anything that is processed, I eat vegetables for breakfast because they are the least calorie dense foods, I eat a high starch lunch, a small amount of fruit for dinner and I fast from 5 pm until 7 pm the next day.
On the weekends I might have oatmeal for breakfast instead of vegetables. I might have a dish for lunch that includes processed soy products like a soy "meat". And in the evening I might have some popcorn after my dinner. None of these foods are bad or break my general boundaries, but if I ate them all the time I'd have a hard time loosing weight.
Ultimately, I don't believe that I could do anything in two days that would overcome what I do for five days. This has been proven by my steady weight loss for eight months, regardless of the fact that I relax my diet on the weekends.
I'm looking as my free days differently now than I did in the beginning. Now I think about reaching the maintenance phase. So, when I start the weekend now I look at it like a trial maintenance for two days. I think the transition from weight loss to maintenance is important and I'm a lot more thoughtful now about what I eat on the weekends. At some point I want my weekends to look like what my normal diet will be once I'm done with weight loss. I don't know exactly when that will be, but I will get there and how I handle my food plan once I get there could make or break my long term success.
This is what I believe. I've had eight months to think about how I will keep the weight off. Statistically speaking, most people don't keep off the weight. Most people gradually gain it all back. When you stop doing what you did to loose the weight, it's just common sense the you will begin to gain weight. That's why my break from my plan is important. It's my testing time so that I can figure out what the rest of my life will look like in regards to what I'll be able to eat and maintain my smaller body.
I guess only time will tell if I'm right. I hope I am.
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