222.2 - My First Free Day

Weight - 222.2 lb
Weight Lost - 13.2 lb. in 24 days

Total Calories Eaten - 2725
Today's MFD calorie allowance - 2257 for a 2 lb loss/week rate
MFD occupation activity level - Heavy Activity
HWHL calorie allowance - 2189.3 for a 2 lb loss/week rate
Total MFD Exercise/Activity Calories Earned - 565
MFD Calorie Balance - 468 over the 2lb loss/week rate, but I still had 532 calories I could have eaten at the weight maintenance level of 3257, or the 3189.3 HWHL baseline level.
MFD Weight Loss Rate Today - 1.1 lb loss/week
HWHL Points Today - none, today and tomorrow are "free" days. The next two-week session starts Monday.
Exercise - 30 minutes Wave stepper workout w/3lb weights. 7 min of crunches, 25 min shopping. Okay, like I explained before, I know shopping as an activity is kind of lame, but then MFD doesn't give me very many "points" for that anyway, only about 50 calories-worth. But every little bit helps!

Free day was an interesting experience today. Instead of impulsively just eating whatever came to mind, I consciously made choices about what I ate, and still came in at a weight-loss rate. Not much, but still, I didn't go over my MFD or HWHL baseline for weight maintenance (around 3000 calories.) A few days ago, when I was feeling worn out, I was totally looking forward to free day, and eating a ton of junk food, like cookies, ice cream, and pizza. I did most of that, but I still had that internal "pause button," where you think about your choices, what effect they will have, and you realize that you have the will to refuse and stick with your goals, instead of giving in to your emotions. I could really tell when my body was actually hungry, instead of wanting food for emotional reasons. Frankly, I ate a few things just because it was "free day," and I felt like I had something to prove, like I'm not a total control freak or something and couldn't allow myself a treat every once in a while, not because I was really hungry or craving anything.

And man, was I thirsty! Getting my HWHL 64oz. of water in has been no problem this week, because I've been drinking closer to 80oz., and sometimes more. I'm sure part of that is due to the summer time. But I'm learning to recognize the sensation of thirst, that dry spot at the back of my throat, and feed it some water, instead of grabbing a soda pop, or more likely, a moist piece of food.

But, I'll tease you here with some of the things I ate today, featuring dinner by Papa Murphy's:

Classic pepperoni. Yummmmm!!

Man, I love a spinach artichoke pizza, and this variety was the Chicken Bacon Artichoke DeLite. To die for!

Cinnamon Wheel pizza, with cream cheese frosting.

The half-cherry, half-apple Dessert Pizza, also with cream cheese frosting. Can you believe only $3.49 each for this and the Cinna Wheel? Man, I just couldn't resist.