New eating plan

The reason I've been counting calories lately is that I found a new eating plan. Six days a week I eat with the caloric deficit needed to lose weight. Then one day a week I'm allowed to "forget all about your diet and eat whatever you want in whatever quantities you want." That's the phrase used, anyway, but it's qualified by some rules.

For health purposes, the plan says to avoid trans fats and high fructose corn syrup. That pretty much guarantees I'm not going to go overboard. No trans fats means no french fries, or anything deep fried at restaurants. And HFCS is in so many things.

This is called an overfeeding day. The typical person is supposed to go 1,000 calories above what they eat on the other days. However, a woman who only needs about 1,300 calories (me) should only go up to 2,000 calories or the difference is too drastic. And the majority of food that day is supposed to come from carbs.

The overfeeding day is for two reasons. 1. The body will know it's not starving, so it will continue to let go of fat (plus mentally I have a break to look forward to). 2. The overfeeding on carbs boosts the amount of leptin the body produces, which is an important hormone for weight loss.

Frankly, I'm a bit skeptical of the overfeeding day. Overfeeding on carbs goes against the grain. However, I suppose these can be good carbs. It's only my internal programing that brings donuts and cake to mind. But I'm willing to give it a shot because the rest of the plan is so sensible, and the calorie deficit is big enough to make up for one day a week of higher calories.

And it's allowing me freedom in my diet every day. I get the variety I'd been craving (nuts, seeds, fruit and some dairy) while staying on a healthy plan that's allowing my body to release weight.

Sunday was my first overfeeding day. We were celebrating my husband's birthday, so my I ate in a way I'm not planning to eat every Sunday. We went to Applebees and I had the quesadia burger. Yum! With fries--ooh, a forbidden food already. Plus we had coupons for 2 free dessert shooters. We got those coupons when we went there on Valentine's Day.

I took half my food home for later, and didn't eat all the fries. So I stayed within my calories for the day. But I gained two pounds because of the type of food I ate. Even though this was an atypical day, I'm changing my weigh-in days from Tuesday to Friday. Tuesday would only give me one day to eat clean before I have my official weigh-in.

Just so you're up to date, last Tuesday I was at 179.8. Sunday morning I weighed 178.4. That low may have been somewhat a water-fluctuation fluke. Monday morning I was up to 180.6, and now this morning 179 even.

I don't expect fast losses on this plan. Especially in the beginning when I'm tweaking it. But mentally I need a day off once in a while. If I feel like a bit of chocolate, this plan allows for that. I'll have to learn as I go what I can't get away with Sundays. I have a feeling this Sunday will be another not-so-good day. My parents are having us over to celebrate my husband's birthday, and my sister-in-law's birthday which is at the end of the month.

But I'm trying to establish something I can live with for the rest of my life. And birthdays happen.