Free Day

I've obviously been looking forward to this day all week, but in an apprehensive way. It's not a part of most diets, but from all the reading I've done in the last couple years I've seen that it is a part of a lot of programs that are heavy on the weightlifting stuff. Or maybe it's a part of the more strict programs, where there are forbidden foods most of the time, so you need a time when you take a break regularly. The BFL book has super strict eating rules for the weekdays, and then they tell you to go wild (but you know, not TOO wild) on the seventh day, to get it out of your system so you can get back to "clean" eating and working out the next day.

As a vegan, I've been doing some stuff that's really different from BFL eating, because they don't give you a lot of vegan options. For vegetarians, there's theoretically just a lot of cottage cheese. I count calories and eat six meals that are each around 250-300 calories each, and balance out my protein, fat and carbs so it's about 25% protein, 25% fat and 50% carbs (coming from veggies, fruit and whole grains). If I did a straightforward BFL eating program it would be closer to doing Atkins I guess, and maybe somewhat lower calorie, but I want to build a good muscle base so I don't want to go much below 1500 a day with exercise. And eating a whole lot of veggies and whole grains is part of my life plan, so that's not going to get compromised.

So far so good. My weigh in this morning was a bit higher than yesterday, but still a solid 2.5 pounds down from Sunday. And that's even with puking my guts out last Saturday so I think my initial weigh in may have been a bit low.

Anyway, free day report - I skipped my morning cereal because I'd been dreaming about foccacia and I was determined to find some. I went to the Green Market but they didn't have any! I ended up at Whole Foods and bought a hunk of (non-cheesy, yay) onion foccacia plus a jar of eggplant caviar. I had about half of it in the store, stopped when I was full, and had the rest after I went and saw a movie. I had a bit more eggplant caviar with some of my usual flourless sandwich bread after I got home, and now I've ordered some Ethiopian food for dinner. My general feeling about this was that I should not bring anything into the house that will still be here after today. So it'll be a struggle to throw away my Ethiopian leftovers after I'm done tonight, but it's better than if I went out and bought something decadent to cook and then had to look at it all week. I'll have to hammer out a plan for free day, or maybe just turn it into free meal at a restaurant, to keep it in check. I found that I also felt pretty free to spend a ton of money today, which isn't so great either. But I went by the health food store and got a bunch of the best local tofu, tempeh on sale and some quinoa and millet. I was intending to buy a bunch of new grains, but they didn't have as much variety as I'd thought.

And that's the full report. I'm exhausted from being out in the hot sun, and I think I may be really pathetic and spend yet another weekend night in. I'm a ridiculous homebody, but I have such a complex about it when I have roommates. I'm so satisfied to stay in and watch a movie on Saturday night. I was going to go see a band, but then my nap lasted way too long to get to Brooklyn in time. I miss living in Brooklyn a little, but actually it's way less than I thought. I'm really happy to be back in my own place, I'm stoked that I have a gym nearby, and I'm excited to start school again. Who would've expected it?!