Day Ninety-seven (R, 110407) — Free Meals v Free Day

As one of my three variable tweaks this week, I have decided to switch from having one, concentrated Cheat Day Free Day to 2-3 moderate Cheat Meals Free Meals.*

So yesterday was my first Free Meal and I gotta say I think this may be a really good idea.  I hope I’ll see some proof of that come Saturday but psychologically, I think this is a winner.

Why?  Well, the big difference was the self-control I had was much easier to exert.

Up until now, when Cheat Free Day had arrived, I pretty much went crazy.  Eating 4000-5000 calories of utter crap. And, while Free Days are a planned part of the 4HB program, that doesn’t mean you have to be stoopid about how you do it.

Yesterday, I had my first Free Meal at Denny’s: Grand Slam with four eggs over medium, four bacon, two sausage, and two pancakes.  I also ate one of those nuclear orange cheese cracker things the kids like so much.

By taking a free meal sooner than once a week, the cravings are nowhere near as strong as they are when I “am good” for a week and then go nuts on Saturday.

This meal was mostly SCD friendly.  Only the pancakes (and the nuclear crackers) were “free” items.

Additionally, by making it a single, planned meal, I was able to time my 4HB Damage Control easily and avoid the all-day snacking I tend to do on a Free Day.

In my opinion, snacking really diminishes the effectiveness of the Damage Control hacks.  Since they are all predicated on ingesting or doing things in and around meals, eating an extra PopTart (or two) or orange roll (or four) between meals, with no associated Cissus or exercise or grapefruit juice, etc., makes that bit of cheating truly costly.

So . . . the proof will be measured on Saturday, but so far, I like this idea a lot.

Anybody else out there have any experience with switching from Free Days to Free Meals?

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Breakfast: whey protein shake in water before my run and workout, same thing after, kombucha, AGG

Lunch: leftover half of a Freebirds burrito bowl with double steak, refried beans, black beans, pinto beans, lettuce, salsa, pico, and veggies. Cissus and AGG.

Dinner: sausage and sauerkraut

Other food throughout the day: black coffee, three tablespoons of natural peanut butter

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* Based on a comment made by a friend of mine (Drew Baye, noted fitness instructor and he of the  rock-hard abs seen on p. 13 of The Four Hour Body), I now use the term “Free” rather than “Cheat” for those meals or days when I eat things not normally eaten on whatever program you are following.

The term is important because “cheat” implies you’re breaking the diet, and encourages people to eat crap. A “free” meal is a planned, momentary calorie increase (or sometimes carb increase depending on the diet). It’s still part of the diet. If you eat a food you normally wouldn’t eat, that’s fine, but you don’t go nuts with it. If you eat more in general than you would on the more restricted days, that’s fine, as long as it isn’t excessive.

If a person thinks “cheat” they tend to think “a whole pizza washed down with coke followed by a quart of ice cream”, but if they think “free” or “maintenance” or some similar term, they tend to think “I can have A piece or two of pizza and a 1/2 cup of ice cream, because I can consume X calories today and still not go over estimated maintenance intake”.

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