The NEW and Improved "Free Day"

Free day! OM nom nom nom nom

In the past, I have used our Free Day as a way to basically binge eat my way through things I had been craving all week. And then I would wonder why the scale wasn't moving very much at my next weigh in.

During this new discovery of true Calorie Deficit and how it will help me lose weight, I did some self reflection and realized I was eating back most/all of my deficit I had created during the week on our "Free Day". 

This time, I wouldn't let that happen.

We meticulously planned our free MEAL for Monday, 08/25/14. We enjoyed lunch at a restaurant, therefore allowing me to "bookend" my free day with healthier choices. I started with my Grass Shake for breakfast, just something to put in my belly without a ton of calories. Then, depending on what I ended up eating at lunch, I had my dinner meal to compensate if needed.

My goal was to basically eat as close to my current maintenance calories for the day, thus giving Monday a 0 on the scale for weight gain or loss. That way my progress throughout the week will actually be spread out over 6 days (as it actually was last week).

So, how did I do?

Well, the Husband and I ended up at Ruby Tuesday. We haven't been there in some time due to bad service the last time we went. We had been seeing commercials reminding us about their salad bar and decided that sounded really good for our splurge meal.

Since we knew where we were going, I spent the night before doing as much research as possible to find what I would eat and the estimated caloric intake of my meal. This helped me really prepare well to ensure I knew what calories I was consuming and plan my day accordingly.

I ended up enjoying 2 Mini cheeseburgers AND fries. Then I also took one turn at the salad bar. Since there wasn't exact caloric information on the salad bar items (outside the dressings), I tried to overestimate as best as possible. 

At the end of the day, with a reasonable dinner under my belt, I should have consumed around 2500 calories. 

That is so much better and probably close to what my current weight "maintenance" calories would be for a day. I look forward to seeing how it is reflected on the scale this next weigh in and if I did as well on my Free Day as hoped.

:~D