I've had a very similar experience with free days.  When I first undertook the challenge, I found myself growing more and more excited as my free day would approach.  I would then over-indulge on my favorite foods and down several beers.  After a few short weeks though, I noticed that I was doing this less, as I really didn't like the way I would feel after my free day.  My energy levels would be way down, and I was feeling like I did before I started the challenge.  Even worse, I felt as though I had cheated myself, even though it was supposed to be my "free" day.  I have finally determined that for me, moderation is the key.  I know that I am able to eat what I want if I choose to do so, but most of the time I just stick with my program.  I feel better, mentally and physically, when I do.

Amen Marqui D!

Free day is simply that...free day. However, many folks have revelations from their free days. I have! I have done as you say and chased my tail all week just to lose the weight that I put on from free day. I have to believe that is some of the struggles that I hear about from others who believe they are not having results. I've also had the Monday sugar hangover, depression, fatigue syndrome.

Please keep in mind that I always utilize my free day. Some are worse than others. What I know for a fact is that IF I choose to over indulge on my free day, I will weigh the same amount next Sunday as I did this Sunday. I will have to work extra hard to remove that extra weight. I have gained 8 pounds in 1 week before. :-0 Seriously!

So I have to ask...is it worth it? Honestly....SOMETIMES it is. I recognize that about once every 4-6 Sundays I find myself wanting to sample every wrong food item available. If I forego the free day, I might really struggle with my BFL meal plans throughout the week.  MOST OF THE TIME I realize what I have accomplished over the last 14 weeks. The last thing I want to do is fill my body with all that crap and punish my body.

It's your choice. However, the choice will have consequences. Are you mentally ready to accept them?

Same here Marqui D. As my first free day approached i was excited. All I wanted to do was eat out and have some easter candy lol But as soon as I went out and ate Mexican food all else ceased. I felt so sluggish and disgusting that the last thing I wanted to do was eat anything else all day long. (My Easter candy now resides in the bottom of my freezer) Needless to say I still take full advantage of my free days but only 4 weeks into this I've already realized I have to hold out for something I REALLY want cause it's gonna make me feel gross all day long.

Faithful Renee: I did the same exact thing on my first free day except I still weighed a pound more by the next sunday even after 'chasing my tail' all week.

Will i do it again? Eventually. Will I regret it? Not until Monday morning. lol When I have to work my tail end off to get free day weight off

Have a blessed Monday Everyone

I am leaning toward moderation.

It's Monday morning, and I feel like crapola.

Over did it with (2) Pillsbury fresh baked biscuits, a shrimp and noodle lean cuisine, (2) frozen springrolls nuked, and, half of a 1 pnd hershies w/ almond chocolate bar.

Now, this may not seem that bad in itself, but, I ate all that after 7PM last night - all with in an hour.

I slept okay, but feeling a little groggy.

Had I spread that out through out the day, it wouldn't have been an issue.

Timing, and moderation for me.

Today is another free day and I want to expirement with it once again.

I already know what a pizza binge will do to me, also an all out buffett can do (I live in Las Vegas so got that one down to a tee), an all out drinking fest.

But what I haven't tried is the polar opposite.

What if I went pure Myoplex shakes all day?  What would my body say to that?

I am starting to love those 4 pack pre-made purple bottles.  They don't taste bad at all.   So I think I'm just going to have a six pack today (spread out of course along the six meals)

I will add that my Free day starts at 9pm Sat and Lasts until Sunday 9pm, this way I can be prepared to attack Monday with full vigor.

I did go out to dinner last night so I have some solid foods in me.

Just curious what will happen.  Will let you know tomorrow.   Anyone else got  any interesting Free Day stories to share?

.....oh....also I am realizing  free day is more than just food.  It's one day where I can break out of my routine.  Since I work out in the mornings, I like to wake up Sunday with no alarm clock and just let my body get up when it wants to.  This way I know I have recalibrated my sleep and my body is fully recharged.  

Free day also allows me to plan something fun.  I think next week I'll drive down to California and have a beach day.  (Gotta work on that tan for the 12th week picture!)

Have fun everyone.  Enjoy each step and every moment of all you do!

~Marqui D. C1W7D49  - Free Day!

I take my free day on Saturdays.  The kids are usually gone to friends and my husband and I use that day to go out to eat.  I usually don't venture too far off the path.  For the first fee weeks I over indulged and felt like crap.  So now I eat according to plan except for my dinner out and I try not to go too overboard.   If we are going to go out and have a few drinks I try to keep my meal pretty clean and use the free day for a couple drinks.   Last night we went out and I had a guacamole turkey burger on WW with Cottage Cheese.   Then we went to a friends and I had a few drinks.  

I just hate feeling like hell the next day.  Last night my husband was actually upset that I wouldn't eat something that was more of splurge.  

I enjoyed reading everyone's idea of a fun free day. I must say mine have evolved from very clean free days in challenge one, to horrid free WEEKENDS in challenge two, to the modified and much better balanced free days in challenge three. I like to sleep in and wake up on my own (just like Marqui) and I dont drink all my water. Shhh! It is a "break" to NOT have to run to the bathroom every half hour for me. In the past, free day usually involved wine, now thanks to DeboRAHARAH MO the incredible shrinking woman, I  indulge with flavored coffee and get wired all day long. :) Mmmm - coffee all day long. LOL. You would all be amazed what I have done with myself, this house and my family since my feet hit the floor. I HAVE ENERGY through the roof and the day is not over. I cooked my food for the week (again thanks MO) and feel like these next weeks (8 - 12) will be great. 5 full weeks of results just waiting for me to grab them. I brought my bike out from the next room, set the gazelle aside with a kiss and am changing things up. I have a purpose now. I am on a mission.

Im glad week 7 is over....all 3 challenges, THAT week was my abyss.

im now doing probably my 4th full challenge . the first one was the special one cause you learn so much and it all kind of just blows your mind. and im sure that most of have all had to learn the same thing about free day. it yours to do what you want with, but we also know how easy it is to pack on the weight and how hard it is to get it back off. i do my work outs early before work i get up at 4am to get them in and it didnt take to long for me to decide that if i was gunna go thru the effort of being up early and working hard at getting the fat off that i felt like i was really cheating myself by not following thru with the easy part and that is the eating plan. it really bum's me out if at the end of a week i havent seen a bit of movement on the scales so i try to take it easy on my free day. that dosent mean you cant treat your self to a bit more and something special but i just dont over do it   take care and have fun

C1W6D1

This being my first successful challenge, I definitely have been going overboard with my free days. It's all been way too much for me. I think that's exactly the reason why I am seeing very little results thus far. I am sure that I gain back what I lost during the week (and then some) and I have had it.

Yesterday was my free day, and I felt terrible last night. Remembering that I fell feel terrible every night and morning after my free day, I threw out everything that I was totally binging on. I keep a little bit of chocolate and I have thing in my house to make some sweets if I want, but if I am pledging to myself and all of you that from now on I will not overdo it on my free day. I feel "drunk" from food and I hate it.

Freedom from food addiction (or be they, alcohol, etc.) doesn't means that you don't "get" to eat what you want, it means that you don't "have" to.

Thanks all for your support,

Katiebug

hey marqui

it was interesting to read about your pizza free day. i have a question about starting at 9 on saturday and ending at 9 on sunday...i didnt think that was allowed because you are sleeping for however many of those hours...

so you basically have one free meal on saturday and then all day sunday? do you eat something authorized at 9pm on sunday?

just wondering...doing something like this would work good for me (9-9 saturday - sunday free day)

thanks

Thanx everyone for your responses, I know it helps me learn just a little more and helps others as well  =)

So yesterday that free day did a number on me.  I didn't follow my original plan of the 6 Myoplex shakes, but then again, that's the beauty of free day, change you mind if you want to.

After writing a post and mentioning Kentucky Fried Chicken, I said,"Hey why not? That sounds like a good idea, I'm hungry anyways."   Well here's the kicker, sure I can have it, but did I have to get an 8 piece meal and a large soda?  After all it's just me, who's gonna eat all that?  So at least when I got home, I tried to portion it, the carb-protien way, and then I said, if I want to keep eating I'd have to wait an hour, then do it again.

Did that and it was ok, but then I started to feel bloated, I pretty much couch potatoe'd the whole day, watching movies, napping, and basically zero activities.  I decided later I'd have to do something, so I went to the night range to hit some golf balls.

On my way there I was craving a soda.  It was about 8:30 and I felt like Cinderella because my cut off time is 9:00pm and then it's back to the program.  I could hear my inner voices fighting with each other -  No you've had enough, you don't need anymore junk  VS. it's ok, it's within the rules, you have until 9pm anyways, besides, we're going to hit some golf balls, we'll burn it off then.    Well, you'll already know which one wins out.

After getting the soda - (this part seems weird, but comical)  I could hear my different body parts speaking.  My lower body was sad because tomorrow, is LBWO and it knows what I am going to demand of it.  It wants nutrients and good fuel in order to perform properly.   Then I could hear my arms, and shoulders laughing saying, "Haha, we don't have to do anything until Wednesday, so what do we care"    That's when Lower Body said, "fine, if we run out of energy tomorrow, we're just going to take yours, IF they (my brain?) are going to demand so much from us tomorrow, we've got to get that energy from somewhere."

That's when Upper body (chest and forearms chiming in) said, "hey that's not fair, we NEED this energy to rebuild and prepare for Wednesday =\"

Lower body just said, " tough, too bad don't blame us we're not the ones responsible for putting food in the body."    (that's when mouth had the look of a kid caught in the cookie jar!

So here's the hard lesson of what this does.  Prior to Saturday's Aerobic work out, I hit 200.0 lbs exactly and was getting excited that I'd break the 199 barrier soon!  Then life comes into play. That night my sister was in town and we went out to eat.  Sunday morning 203.8, not bad, I could deal with that.  Then couch potatoe, binge eat Sunday, goodnight weight 207.0   Monday morning after workout (and good water intake as well) 204.8

So my first thought was this suxx, I'll need to starve and get this weight off somehow, then Positive Inner voice said,

 "No no no!  Follow the program, follow the program.  Free day is done.  You're body needs nutrients.  The scale is just that a scale.  Just record it and move on.

Well I tell you what - After my morning meal of good clean food (some lightly seared ahi tuna will a heap of Spinach and some wheat bread) I ate it so fast and I could feel my body parts grabbing it quickly to restore what was lost!    

So I'm back on track - I'm planning to take a trip next Free Day to So. California and hit the beaches like Del Mar, Newport and/or Malibu.  Maybe that's when I'll take the 6 Myoplex shakes I wanna try.

In closing - Heather I'm with you...hate that next day feeling - now my body parts are chiming in their 2cents worth!  Leg's yup I love that sleep!  Hit the snooze button this morning and got my day off track by 1 hour!   That's what that last soda will do, even if it's before the cut-off time!  Wyoming Dude - Yup week 8 (the entire week, not just one day) will make me pay for that one not so fun in the long run day, was it worth it?  Hah...you already know the answer.  Katie - I don't like this "drunk" feeling anymore.  Week 7 is done for me, have I learned anything yet?

Everyone else - I hope our stories help you with your free day.  If you have anything interesting of what you've learned, please share!

Good luck everyone!  Until next Free day - it's back to taking care of this Body.  For Life!

~Marqui D.  C1W8D50

P.S.  I didn't eat the whole bucket.  I can't remember who's idea it was from this forum, but I froze the rest (about 3 pieces) so as not to tempt me during the week.

Hi Therese - I was busy writing about this weekend's antics and didn't see you slip in.

So to answer your question...I started doing this around week 3-4 because I said to myself this isn't going to work, this is Vegas and too many things go on on the weekend, so I needed to adjust.

(Like one time it was fight night and there was pizza and beer everywhere, what was I gonna do refuse and look like a dweeb, I'd be chastized anyways.  So that time I adjusted and went from 7-7.  Now I could move on and there's no issue and no one is the wiser.)

You know how you write down all your meals for the day?  Well that last meal (which mine is usually scheduled for 9:15) that I should take on Saturday night, I'll move that over to Sunday night. (authorized)

This way, I'm not letting that go in vain.  

This does two things.   If I end up going out that night, then I didn't waste it and I don't have to worry.

Plus by Sunday, it's a way to get back on track, more mentally than anything else.  It's a trigger point that says, hey, Free day is over, let's get back to business!

oh ok i see, so bascially you do what i thought you did...sunday is bascially your free day and you reverse last meals on saturday and sunday (i like to make things sounds really complicated LOL)

i know what you mean about looking like a dweeb. so you went from 7-7 free day to 9-9 free day?

I find that if I PLAN my free day then I don't over do it.  What I mean by that is all week I think about what I might want to splurge on.  Than as Saturday approaches I know exactly what I want.  If I go going into the day with no plan I am more likely to just pick at or snack on anything in site.  If I know what this weeks treat will be ahead of time it just goes much smoother.