In about 10 days I'm going to start my first (two week) diet break. I was just curious what other people have done, or not done. I think I wanted a sounding board for my plan, too.
I've been losing weight at a pretty good clip (2.2lb per week on average) but I'm sort of less excited about it than I used to be. I have plenty of things that I know work to curb my consumption of "junk" calories, and I'm not using them for whatever reason. My diet is skewing a little away from where I'd like it to be, and I just feel too tired to fix it. I'm not being as creative about meal planning, or proactive about getting my me-time as I used to be.
I'm hoping to come back after the first of the year refreshed, all my injuries healed up, and really excited about trying new things and working the program that I know works for me.
2.2lb per week is about 7700 calories of deficit per week, or 1100 calories per day. I think that half of that is from exercise over baseline, and that my exercise will probably drop significantly (I'll have company for the first week, and be out of town for the second one). So I should be increasing my intake by 550 calories per day. I don't count calories, so that's not really a very useful figure. That's 7 pieces of see's candy, 2.5 cups of rice or 9 oz of steak. Those are things I can get my head around.
I don't find my current diet to be especially restrictive, so I'm thinking that I'll keep 2 meals a day generally the same as they are now, and splurge a little with the third. Pick a higher-fat cut of meat, or a more-refined starch. Or maybe have a sweeter snack - frozen yogurt or a rice krispy treat instead of a piece of fruit. Whatever I eat, I'm going to keep the rule that I don't eat when I'm not hungry, and I stop eating as soon as I realize I'm hungry. I'm also going to try to only indulge in things that are worth it. I haven't decided if I'm going to log everything, but I think I probably will, even if I only log at the end of the day.
For the first week, I'll be home, so I can weigh in as usual, and know if things are going pear-shaped. For the second week, I'll have my experience from week one, and my common sense to guide me.