Day 58: Free Day

On Body For Life, you are supposed to take one day off as your “free day” each week. I read an excellent article on the Body For Life website today that goes into detail about your free day and has some good pointers. I’ll give a quick summary here, but you should click over and read the entire article – it is a good read. Click here to read the article.

On your free day, you are allowed to indulge in all of the “unauthorized” food of your choice. The BFL website even has a picture of a donut with the article. The idea behind it is that if you have one day off, it is easier to withstand temptation during the week. I’ve definitely found this to be the case. If I am tempted with something, I just think to myself, “well, I can have that on my day off this week”. Another benefit is that after eating healthy all week, that splurge food may not be as good as we remember when we used to eat it all the time. It helps remind us how good we feel when we eat healthy. It’s not meant to be a binge day like a binge drinker, but rather a day to reward and treat ourselves. One thing that the BFL website mentioned is that if we’re going to treat ourselves, treat ourselves right. If you’re going to get a burger and fries, enjoy a high quality one, not a quick drive through. Here in Austin, TX, we have Mighty Fine Burgers, which grinds their own beef onsite and hand forms their patties right there in front of you.

If you’re ever in Austin, you have to check them out. For me, having the day off really helps make it easier to stay committed to healthy eating during the week. It has been a couple of years since I did Body For Life the first time. When I finished it last time, I tried to keep up the same habits, but gradually over time it became more difficult to say “no” to a cookie at the office, or a cupcake. Another reason why I did Body For Life this time around was to get myself back in the habit of eating healthy regularly. It definitely has helped me so far, and I’m seeing the rewards from it already.

Day 13: Week 2 Weigh-in

2 weeks down, folks. First off, the weekly weigh-in. Last week I weighed in at 167. My weigh-in this morning was….drum roll…
5 pounds in 2 weeks
I’m down 2 pounds from 167 to 165 this week. When I do my weekly weigh-in at FatSecret, I record my weight there. They track it and plot it on a graph, which is pretty cool.
FatSecret Weight Chart
The bottom line is my target weight, which is 155. Depending on how much muscle I gain, my ideal weight may be a little higher than that. The main purpose for me doing Body For Life is to lose fat and gain muscle. Whatever ending weight I end up at is fine with me as long as I’ve trimmed the roll around my waste off and have built muscle all the way around.

My body is slowly starting to transform like it is supposed to do in Body For Life. Here are the front pictures after 2 weeks:
Week 2 Frontal (with shorts)
Now, from the back is where you can really see a difference – even only after 2 weeks:
Week 2 Rear Pictures (of me from the rear, not my rear)
Now, my day off wouldn’t be complete without some sort of splurge. I’ll be honest – I had a hard time motivating myself to eat something that is not on the Body For Life diet; I’ve gotten so used to it after 2 weeks of it. I know it’s necessary to shock your body, though, so that it can not go into starvation mode and save fat. I want to burn fat and not muscle. I hadn’t eaten much all day long, and finally decided to get a classic burger, fries and drink from Whataburger.
Burger, Fries & Drink
If I’m going to grab a burger from a fast food place, I wouldn’t waste it on McDonalds – yuck. The nice thing about Whataburger here in Texas is that you don’t have to tell them how to make the burger – they just do it right. They make it fresh (no heat lamps) and with mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickle and onions. None of this ketchup or mayonnaise crap…or especially thousand island dressing. Really? Who invented that anyway. That stuff just doesn’t belong on a burger. Just Mustard. Period.

I also have some ice cream for later on tonight…mmm. I think ice cream is where my sweet tooth goes. Some people are chocolate people, others traditional sugar candy, and some are pie people like my older brother. When he wants a cream pie shake, he doesn’t go to some place that makes an imitation shake that tastes like a cream pie. He needs to see them cut a piece of pie, put it in a blender with some ice cream, and make a real for real cream pie shake. He doesn’t mess around. Anyway, I’m an ice cream person. Especially chocolate with brownie chunks in it…mmmm. I guess I’m officially on my day off now – craving ice cream. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts and hit it hard again tomorrow morning.