Most of the diet gurus I read from Tyler Weeks of 344 Pounds to John Rowley of Peak Performance Lifestyle advocate one day a week where you just don’t worry about what you eat.
I guess that’s not totally accurate. The message is to allow yourself some fun and stay grounded in the real world. Yes, stay mindful of what you put in your mouth but don’t sweat it if you decide to have a nice dinner out with friends.
That’s what happened with me yesterday. For the first time since I started counting calories and logging them into my online calorie/exercise log, I went nuts. Part of the reason was a power outage due to high winds. No electricity, no heat. It was cold and I couldn’t even warm up water for tea. My wife suggested we get dressed and go out for breakfast and then take care of some errands, maybe do a little shopping at a local Borders that is closing it’s store. Hopefully, the thinking went, by the time we get back, power will be restored and we’ll be able to take a nice hot shower and take a nap.
Breakfast
We went to breakfast, alright. One of my favorite breakfast places – the Tastee Diner in Laurel, MD . It’s an old fashioned diner with old fashioned diner type food. Waitresses that call you “hun” and keep filling your coffee cup until you cry “Uncle”. I personally like the eggs and corned beef hash with toast. The only problem is that they really give you a lot of corned beef hash and that stuff is high in calories. God, it does taste good, though.
Lunch
Lunch wasn’t too bad. We got home about noon and the power was back on and the house was heating back up. I had a couple of clementines and some grahams and that was about it. Not really too bad.
Dinner
By dinner I was pretty hungry and my wife had this idea earlier in the day to go out to dinner with some friends to a Mexican place called Sierra’s Grill and Taqueria in beautiful Beltsville, MD. It turns out she had a $50 gift certificate and a hankerin’ for a Martguerita.
Well, I was game for that. We made the call. Our friends were game, too. So we all got together for some good food and some sopapillas with ice cream. Calories? I didn’t even want to guess.
The point, I guess, is that in order to avoid that deprived feeling a lot of dieters get when they don’t eat the foods they like or feel like they’re sacrificing socializing with friends, it’s good to get out and just stop the counting for a day.
That’s what I did.
Yes. When I weighed myself this morning I was up a little. Not a ton but some. Now it’s time to get back on the program and count what I eat and make sure I don’t go overboard. It’s OK to say “To hell with it” one day. It’s not OK to do it everyday. Been there, done that, doesn’t work.
