Skipping a meal after S days?

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BirdieGirl
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Skipping a meal after S days?

Post by BirdieGirl » Mon May 04, 2009 2:54 pm

I had an alright weekend, I relaxed my resolve against the esses and enjoyed the break. This morning, however, I found I just wasn't hungry for breakfast. And, I'll admit, thinking about the the food I ate that I didn't need just made me a bit guilty. So, I skipped it. Is this against any "rules"? Am I over analyzing? I hope I lose this hang-up with what feels like "cheating" on weekends.

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Mon May 04, 2009 3:02 pm

BirdieGirl,

Don't beat yourself up for having done this, but I don't think it's a good idea.

Some relevant "teaser content" from the book:

pages 53-54
Is It Extra- Good to Eat Fewer Meals?

Skipping meals, especially breakfast, is strongly asso-
ciated with obesity. It isn’t extra-good— it’s extra- bad.
You may feel like you’re doing something virtuous by
depriving yourself of a meal, but in all likelihood, the
calories you cut out now will come back later— with
interest.

Remember that generations of people stayed thin on
three meals a day. According to the USDA data cited
earlier, the average number of calories ingested at dinner
actually has declined since 1977.18 It’s snacks that are
pumping all these extra calories into us. Meals are not
the problem; they are the solution.

But a meal isn’t just a meal. It’s not just “one time.â€
It’s a link in the chain of habit. Skip a meal, and you
are breaking the chain for the sake of a few less calo-
ries. That’s just not worth it.

So no more than three meals but no less! Let the
maximum be the minimum.

And (in reverse, since you're trying to make up for S-days on N-days, although it doesn't even sound like you're S-day was very over the top):

pages 103-104
What If I Mess Up During the Week?

If you mess up during the week, you might be tempted
to “make up for it†by giving up an S day. But it’s a
terrible idea to trade days after the fact, as revenge for
a failure. That just gives you license to fail again. By
paying off a debt, you’re mentally opening up a line
of credit: You’ll always think you can make up for a
weekday excess later, so the bar for breaking the rules
will be much lower. By making failure correctable you
also make it much more likely. It’s hard enough to resist
that brownie without hearing a little devil whisper in
your ear, “Go ahead, enjoy, you can always make up
for it later!â€

And if you’re having trouble making it through the
week, the last thing you want to do is give yourself an
extra opportunity for failure on the weekend. In col-
lege, if you fail a basic physics course, the solution isn’t
to take advanced physics, but to take the basic physics
course over again until you get it right.

Reinhard

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BirdieGirl
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:21 am
Location: Minnesota

Post by BirdieGirl » Mon May 04, 2009 3:51 pm

Thanks for the content, I ordered the book and look forward to reading more. Your commitment to supporting your flock of subscribers is admirable, and appreciated.

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