Journey Updates
No Such Thing As a Day Off
April 23, 2010 @ 10:09 am
I don't really get to take days off. I run my own business and aside from always needing to be working on something, I could be essentially on call on any given day in case of a server meltdown ... or a client meltdown (though I don't really tolerate those). Sure I take it easier on the weekends and I love to travel and get away, but I'm never truly far from the office as long as my phone is in range of a cell-tower.Similarly, I don't really believe in "cheat days" when it comes to my weight loss journey. I hear tell of diets and dieters who work hard to eat nutritiously five or six days out of the week and then go hog-wild on the weekend. I have a few problems with that notion (for me):
- Eating nutritiously is not a temporary hobby to lose weight. For me, I have no intention of going back to processed foods and weeks-worth of pasta and bread. I may loosen the reins a little bit - some day - but when I reach my goal weight I'm not going to go back to the way I used to eat. I love real food, I intend to keep eating and cooking real food.
- It's too easy to overdo it on the cheat day; you can have 800 net calories a day (net! including exercise) for five days, but then skip the gym and go out on the town and easily eat 3500 or 4500 calories a day on the weekend. The risk is to completely negate the whole notion of eating well the rest of the week ... it's merely treading water.
- Looking forward to cheat days subconsciously associates eating right with negative connotations. You have to cheat because "the diet" is so awful. That will just lead to more cheating during the week, and before you know it, the "diet" is blown and we're starting over again.
- Cheat days do make "the diet" awful. If you reserve every notion of sweetness and tastiness for one day a week, then you may be forcing yourself to live on bread crust and water during the week. Another recipe for failure.
So that's what I try to do. Rather than "cheat" and gorge myself silly on ice cream and Starbucks (or ice cream WITH Starbucks) one day a week, I enjoy my little treats every so often on any given day. One or two days a week I eat more than the average, and I keep switching it up to keep my intake varied, but my overall weekly caloric deficit constant.
Anyway, a bit of my philosophy. And by the way, this applies to the gym, too. I will take days that are much lighter or even skip the gym, but it's because the body needs a rest day, and I tend to work really hard the rest of the week.