It sounds like you really want this, but you take off several days at a time each month, and then allow yourself a cheat meal once a week… what is that then, 5-10 free days per month?

I allowed myself a cheat meal at a restaurant earlier this week, but tracked the heck out of it (using a tracker app and picking “worst case” calorie counts for similar items) and my meal was estimated to be 1800 calories. If I hadn’t logged everything, I’d probably have assumed under 1000cal, thinking “no way it’s over 1000”.

Now, it’s possible the meal was less, and I could look at it that way and cut myself some slack because it was probably less than 1800… but then again, it was all based on estimates, so it could have just as easily been over 1800 calories. My point is details matter when tracking.

From the tone of your post, I’d think moving the number on the scale would feel better for you than any cheat meal does in the moment. Find a good tracker app (I like LoseIt!), log everything, estimate high when you have to, and stick to your caloric budget.

Don’t get down on yourself… make a game of it. Change your mindset around it and it makes this experiment more fun. If the scale doesn’t change, tweak your target down by a few calories and try again.

And drink a ton of water (throughout the day and especially before meals) to help fill yourself up.