At least until next month! 

Well, I had my much anticipated and planned cheat day.  My goal was to give myself a full day of eating whatever the heck I wanted once a month, and that would be the day my period starts.  Goofy?  Maybe.  However, I think it might end up being a smart idea.  We will soon find out.

My like with my band, once my period arrives, hormone levels seem to change (better than PMS levels) and also my eating capacity and desire diminishes greatly.  The week before my period is when I want to eat everything in sight, especially chocolate and chips. 

I made it through my PMS week relatively unscathed.  I relented a few times and had a bite here and there of something that I would consider bad, but the scale stayed at 176 all week. 

I was looking forward to my period for once.    I had planned out all of my normally forbidden snacks.   Saturday evening, my monthly visitor showed up.  So, I went to bed knowing that I would be able to eat all of my goodies the next day.  Oh, the mind of a food addict. 

My boyfriend and myself had some errands to run and chores to do.  We ate a healthy breakfast.  I didn't have any bad foods in the house, so it wasn't until later in the afternoon that we picked up the forbiddens.  ha ha ha  I got a grab bag sized bag of Cheetos and Cheetos Hot Fries.  I also got some peanut M&M's.  I also ended up getting a bag of chocolate chip cookies at the store, later. 

The nice thing was, I noticed my hunger was gone.  I tell you, that's the leveling out of the hormones.  I pretty much knew that eating the refined carbs might bring back some hunger and bad cravings, but I was determined to experiment and see if having the one cheat day a month would help me stay good the other 3 weeks out of the month.  My sleeve was so good.  She didn't allow me to eat too many bad foods at once.  I still felt the restriction, and I think a bit more restriction than normal with the period bloat. 

That evening, we decided to go to a casino a just relax a bit.  I allowed myself one beer.  This was my first alcohol since surgery.  I was a bit too scared to try any kind of mixed drink.  I drank my beer slowly, but I did get a slight buzz from it.  When we left there, we went to IHOP to get some grub.  They had a special that had eggs, bacon, sausage and panckaes for .  We each got that, I got a few bites in of every item on the plate.  I pretty much over did it by eating some of the pancakes, I think.  I really did not feel good after that.  I felt really full, but also just generally yucky. 

I didn't even come close to eating all of my forbidden snacks that I picked up that day.  So, I conscienciously decided to extend the cheat day to Monday, since it was a long weekend and all.  ha ha  I realized that I wasn't going to be able to eat my M&M's anyway, since they have peanuts in them.  Duh!  I am not cleared for nuts or raw veggies, as of yet. 

So, yesterday, I finished some of my snacks from the day before and even had some popcorn at the movies.  Well, today is a new day.  I have packed a good lunch and have healthy, high protein snacks.  I do not normally weigh in while my period is  here.  It's just too depressing.  Hopefully, my cheat days didn't set me back too much.  I am feeling good and determined to make good choices for the next 3.5 weeks.    Hopefully, I can report a pound or two loss next week!  Make it a great week!!