Day off

I like the concept of taking a day off, most likely Saturday. WW gives a person 35 extra floater points and I don't use many during the week. Maybe 5-6 in kind of willful undercounting. Like when my lunch is 7 pts but I don't want to admit it so I call it 6. I don't use all 35 for my day off. (sometimes 2 half-days off depending on what is planned for the weekend). And I try not to go utterly crazy, just on principal. Just because you have the points doesn't mean you should act like a complete glutton. Also, unlike the daily points, the 35 points are optional, it says right in the literature don't eat them all if you want faster weight loss. Not that I'm trying to lose, but I still like the structure of saving splurges for the weekend or special events, and I don't want pigging out as a reward to be part of my lifestyle.

This past week, I was feeling kind of restrained, wanting to eat seconds at dinner on both Thursday and Friday. I made some pretty yummy food and wasn't sure how much of it to eat and I probably under-counted a bit. So I ate a little more - after all, I'm on maintenance! But I just had that feeling of wanting to eat to complete fullness, like before. I looked forward to Saturday and left the kitchen.

So yesterday, at around 10:30 am I was hungry and I knew full well I was really just thirsty from the heat, but then I remembered that it was Saturday and I could eat whatever I wanted - including between meals! For me Saturday is not so much about what foods I eat as how much, and when. I let go of all my structure. I took out the fabulous foccacia I had made (recipe below) and some edamame dip I'd bought and had a few pieces, along with a huge glass of seltzer water. Now instead of waiting to see if I was full, I decided to really indulge - to just pig out basically and had a couple more pieces (they were small, maybe 1" x 4" strips) and then finally stopped. Now usually on my day off, I eat extra, but I don't totally pig out. I still show SOME restraint. Not this time.

About 20 min later, I was so full and nauseated I could barely concentrate. I have not been that full in years maybe. I rarely if ever did that before I dieted - I just ate small amounts all day long. I felt like such a huge idiot. Not for wasting the calories, but for wasting the treat of my day off by feeling sick for hours. I didn't even eat that much, but my stomach is not used to overeating at all any more. I was so full I didn't even think about food until about 4pm when I picked a couple things, and then had a normal dinner.

So if you looked at the whole day, I didn't even probably eat more calories than a normal day, so I can enjoy the 2 parties we are going to today (wouldn't that always have been a better choice??), and I did learn a lesson. It's good to let go, but overindulging is never a good idea. Acting like a glutton just felt odd to me and then I paid for it.

Foccacia recipe:

1 bag Trader Joe's or other brand whole wheat pizza dough

1/2 cup fresh shredded parmasean cheese

2 tsp olive oil

salt

1 tbs (maybe more?) Provencal dried herb mix

• Preheat oven to 425 and let dough sit at room temp as directed on package, spray pan with non-stick spray, spread out dough like a pizza.
• Brush olive oil on dough (I actually may try again and skip this step)
• Sprinkle cheese (truth here is that I used about 3/4 cup but I don't think that much was necessary)
• sprinkle some Kosher or sea salt
• Take herb mix, which is all the basics, oregano, thyme, basil, etc. and crush in fingers while spreading a pretty generous portion across whole surface.
• Bake for 12-18 min or until seems done.

Not sure of the calorie count, but it is delish, especially with minestrone soup, which I also make from scratch. I can post the recipe for that too if anyone is interested. I think next time I'll actually measure the ingredients (above are guesses) and come up with a calorie count from nutritiondata.com.