Have Fun and Feel Free
Excerpt from Eating-for-Life Chapter 7
Now that you’ve learned the specifics of Eating for Life and you know about the right foods, right amounts, right combinations and the right times to eat, here’s what I want you to do next...
Forget all that stuff!
That’s right, put it out of your mind. Not every day. Just one day a week.
Let me explain...
I’ve discovered that the healthiest people, with the healthiest eating habits, enjoy eating “fun foods” that are not necessarily the most nutritious, from time to time. I’m the same way. And so I have designed the Eating for Lifestyle to accommodate this natural pattern. Blending both common sense and science in a way that makes Eating for Life even more effective and enjoyable.
So what I’m asking you to do is to follow the Eating for Lifestyle, as I’ve described in this book, six days a week. And on the seventh day, I ask that you eat whatever you want, whenever you want, in whatever amount and combination you so desire.
I call this your “free day.”
On that one day a week, if you want to eat waffles with whipped cream, all covered in maple syrup for breakfast, that’s fine. If you crave lasagna and bread with butter for lunch, go for it. If you want a thick pepperoni pizza with double cheese for dinner, be my guest. A piece of apple pie with ice cream for dessert... sounds good to me!
Do this and don’t worry about it, please.
There are two physiological benefits to purposely eating extra once a week: It boosts fat burning and it helps you control your appetite. You see, when you make a significant change in your eating habits and cut out the junk food, the saturated fat and the high amounts of sugar, it may set off that thousand-year-old encoded alarm inside your brain—the one telling you to eat more. (Remember, way back when, those who could eat the most food, the fastest, and store the most bodyfat were the most “fit to survive” during that era.)
Sensing the change and not knowing that there isn’t a famine around the corner, your body may begin to limit production of a hormone called “leptin.” Leptin is one of many feedback systems your body needed to help keep it from starving in the old, old days. Strong leptin production equals a strong metabolism. Diminished leptin production, on the other hand, makes your metabolism go down and your appetite go up. That is not what we want!
Knowing that science shows the more leptin levels fall, the more your appetite rises and also being aware that response is forged from tens of thousands of years of evolution, we can be certain it’s better to feed it than fight it. When you do, a message moves from your belly to your brain and says, “It’s all good!” In a nutshell, this is how and why eating extra once a week stimulates your metabolism, supporting your efforts to lose unhealthy bodyfat, while it also helps you gain control over cravings.
Now, there are also numerous psychological benefits to the free day. For starters, people find they can live without some of their old favorites like unhealthy desserts, candy bars and burgers and fries most of the time if they know they can eat them some of the time. This really helps people stay on track and keep a positive mindset. And that is so important. No one wants to play a game he or she can’t win. You don’t want to set yourself up for failure. You don’t want to create standards you can’t meet. If you say, “I’m not going to eat another chocolate chip cookie from now on,” and if you happen to like chocolate chip cookies, well, then you’re setting the table for failure, so to speak. So let’s not do that, okay?
Another benefit of the free day is that it creates freedom. Freedom from unrealistic rules, as well as freedom to make decisions for yourself. That’s important because I’ve discovered most people are willing to draw some lines and create a framework for their eating, as long as there’s an element of freedom that remains. And so I don’t tell you what to eat... you decide for yourself. Even on your six Eating for Life days of the week you decide what to eat.
The free day also helps create openness, honesty and self-respect. You see,
all healthy people have needs and cravings that should be expressed, not suppressed. Everyone I’ve ever met has a few “favorite foods.” For me, it’s double-cheese pepperoni pizza, Krispy Kreme doughnuts (the glazed ones) and carrot cake with rich cream cheese frosting. For others, it’s fries and cheeseburgers or ice cream and chocolate. And for others, it’s something altogether different.
Each person has his or her own favorites. Some remind them of warm moments from their childhood. Other favorites are driven by identity, region, heredity and gender. Anyway, I encourage you to eat some of your favorite foods on your free day, even if they are not highly nutritious. This advice goes against the grain of today’s popular diet dogma, which makes eating those foods completely off limits and creates rather than resolves problems.
What I’ve noticed is people on diets “sneak eat” their favorite foods, and when they do, they often serve up a side dish of shame and a tall glass of guilt. This is unnecessary. With Eating for Life, no foods are forbidden. None! Some we only indulge in once a week, but we never say never... ever!
So please, don’t deny that you have favorite fun foods, and don’t pretend that your appetite for those foods is nonexistent. When you stuff those cravings down, look out! They may manifest in the most unusual places! Make no mistake, it’s best to eat some of your favorite foods once a week. It’s healthy, natural and normal.
Got it? Good!
Okay, now there are two types of free days: planned and unplanned.
An example of a planned free day, for me, is if I know I’m going to a Denver Broncos football game on Sunday with my brother and we intend to “get into it” and eat hot dogs, nachos, those giant pretzels and hope for overtime so we have time for popcorn and peanut M&M’s as well.
As far as when you should plan your free day, that’s up to you. Some set aside every Sunday to eat whatever they want. Your free day doesn’t have to be the same day every week. Oftentimes, you might plan it for a special occasion. For example, Thanksgiving—there’s no question, that’s a free day on my calendar.
So is my birthday. I don’t know about you, but I really like the tradition of eating birthday cake. (I love German chocolate cake with coconut frosting!) I think most people do. It’s fun, and it feels good. (By the way, what do people who follow a low-carb diet all the time eat on their birthday... a brick of Brie with bacon and candles on it? Yuck. And boring.)
Here’s an example of an unplanned free day: On my last trip to New York, I got stuck at the airport with a delayed flight, missed two meals and arrived at the hotel after a long day to find they didn’t clean out the “mini bar” like I asked them to ahead of time. Fatigue and hunger took over for a few minutes, and I lost “full awareness.” When I came back to, I found a pile of crumbs and a few empty bags
of Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies, along with onehalf of a broken Pringle sitting in the bottom of the can. Oops! Hey, it happens. Fortunately, not all that often. But when it does, I go to my journal and simply cross out my Eating for Life plans for the day and write “FREE DAY!” Then, if I was planning for a free day on Sunday, I simply follow the Eating for Lifestyle that day instead. Follow me?
This is how to utilize the free day when, despite your best efforts, your day doesn’t go as planned and you end up eating wrong. This helps add flexibility and practicality to Eating for Life. Remember, it’s what you eat most of the time, not some of the time, that feeds success.
Having had the opportunity to help so many thousands of people begin Eating for Life, I’ve noticed that, at first, their free days become feasts. However, what they discover is when you eat right, six days a week, and then you pig out once a week, I mean really go for it, it hurts. Stomachaches are the rule, rarely the exception. And this becomes a learning experience. Psychologists call it “aversion therapy.” Kind of like when parents catch their kids with a pack of cigarettes, which they might puff on at school to try to look cool, and the parents actually “make them” smoke a few. They turn a little green, become just ill enough that cigarettes no longer seem cool; in fact, they seem disgusting.
And this is why free days tend to become self-regulating, self-limiting and part of the overall solution, not part of the problem. They teach you to manage your food intake. And this is something I point out to those who initially are concerned that their free days will be so out of control, it will cause them to gain fat, even if their six Eating for Life days are right on track. I haven’t seen that become a real issue, long term. So don’t worry about it. Even I’ve learned there are only so many Krispy Kreme doughnuts I can eat before I make myself absolutely, positively sick and sorry. You will too!
Some people find that on their free days they have one big meal, like a brunch with pancakes, an omelet, bacon and orange juice, and then they don’t feel like eating the rest of the day. That’s fine. You don’t have to forcefeed yourself. The point is to eat what you want. No more, no less. It’s your free day. Do what you wish. If you eat a big lunch and don’t feel like eating a big dinner, that’s okay.
I’ve also discovered that free days help remind you of what it was like when every day was free day, so you are aware of what you’re getting away from—the ill feeling and the energy drain created by overeating.
By the way, the afternoon of your free day is a great time to do your grocery shopping for the upcoming week. Your appetite will be completely satisfied,
so the urge to buy tempting but unhealthy foods will be stuffed.
Another thing you will discover is that as you begin to learn how to plan, prepare and cook many of the Eating for Life meals that are featured in this book, you’ll find yourself enjoying new favorite foods that are healthy and balanced with protein and carbohydrates. For example, sometimes on my free days, I’ll eat Chicken Enchiladas (page 114) or Spaghetti and Meatballs (page 89), and my “freedom”
is expressed by simply serving seconds, sometimes even thirds. I’ll eat a little more of these healthy foods for fun, for satisfaction. But I don’t make myself sick to my stomach, like I used to when free day meant a freeforall.
With Eating for Life, I never feel like I’m sacrificing or suffering or starving. And I’m never bored. I enjoy eating right six days a week, and I also enjoy eating my favorite fun foods every week. And I am able to stay healthy and strong.
The free day has been one of the keys to my maintaining this approach for over a decade. It’s not something I do for just a certain amount of time. It’s my lifestyle. And I think it will be for you as well.
The important thing to remember is that your free day is yours. Have fun with it and feel free to be yourself. And, please, feel right about it because, in more ways than one, it’s good for you!
