The Right Direction

I weighed in this morning. I'm down 2 lbs from last Thursday--currently 133 lbs and 34% body fat according to my scale. Yay! The cool thing is realizing that the math does work. Based on counting my calories all week, I believed I would be down about two pounds and sure enough, I was.

For the most part, staying within a calorie budget and tracking it all is still not too bad. I don't get frustrated as easily. It is true that knowledge is power. It is odd that counting in some ways is more liberating.

Tuesday and yesterday were tough days. On Tuesday, I felt a bit hungry all day, but fought through it and stuck to my plan. I didn't get to sleep easily on Tuesday night. Yesterday I woke up feeling very worn out and was on the hungry side all day. It was my half day at work and I ate about 300 calories more than I wanted to after I got home. Knowing I had a date with the scale this morning and the prospect of counting it all kept the overage from being much worse. In the end, I feel okay about the extra and still managed to create a calorie deficit for the day.

Today is my husband's birthday and we're going out to dinner. I will likely be a bit high in calories today as well, but that's okay. It won't be an all-out binge by any means and his birthday only comes along once a year.

It's just math, right?

Again, I've been very MIA from blogging, but have maintained a decent workout schedule. Eating on the other hand, has been another story. After a weekend getaway to New Orleans on the 23rd that was filled with loads of fun and food, I decided to start counting calories again. I use Fitday.com and find it very helpful. The site shows a breakdown of macronutrients as well as lots of other neat graphs and charts. What I'm finding most valuable right now is the goal feature that tells me where I need to be calorie-wise based on my basal metabolic rate, any additional calories burned through exercise, and when I want to reach my goal.

I have counted since Thursday and so far, so good. It doesn't feel too tedious and I am finding it empowering to be able to work in a few "treats" here and there without feeling guilty because I am still achieving the appropriate deficit.

We have a trip to Miami coming up in a few months and I am determined to be bikini-ready. The timing is just enough to get back under 120 lbs and a trip to my favorite beach is a great motivator.

Finding Rhythm

While I haven't been very good about regular blogging, I have been pretty good about regular gym attendance. It is amazing how transformative exercise is for me. My attitude and general level of happiness is so much higher when I move my body. I don't know if the exercise endorphins or the simple fact that I'm doing something good for myself.

My eating is (as usual) a work in progress. This week has been much better than last. I'm trying to decide if I should post my eating and workouts daily. The struggle is whether that "accountability" will encourage me to better or if posting everything I eat is slightly disordered and would become a crutch.

Resolutioner, again

New year's is such a good time to commit to being healthier. It feels like a fresh start and most of probably feel a little icky from all of the holiday overindulgence. When I decided to take on the BFL challenge two years ago, I didn't really know where it would lead. In many ways, I didn't think I would be as successful as I was. As the weeks progressed, I didn't think I would ever quit. But by the end of 2008, I had slipped back into old bad habits.

So here I am again, at the start of a new year, resolving to get my body back. I'm still working on the New Rules lifting program and plan to continue until it is complete. As I've said before, I like the BFL style of eating and felt it worked well for me. I want to use that, but without crazy free days on Sundays. Instead of free days, I'll probably eat out twice per week. This time I want to keep going, always, through this year and beyond.

I want to make the good choices for their own sake, not so much to see a number on the scale. Of course I want to see that number go down, but if I get up and go to the gym and eat better, it will.

Today's Meals:
B: Whole wheat English muffin with veggie sausage patty and 1/2 oatmeal cookie
S1: 2 light string cheese
L: Turkey sandwich on 2 slices whole wheat bread with lettuce, mustard, and 1 slice cheese; carrot and celery sticks
S2: Homemade tuna salad with 2 slices mulit grain Wasa crisp bread
D: Cup of corn chowder, 1 garlic parmesan roll with butter, salad with 1T balsamic vinaigrette, 4 oz sirloin with A1

No workout

Mid-week

Today got off to a great start. I went to the gym to lift and made it to work only a few minutes late. I really need to get out of bed about 10 minutes earlier. Usually after lifting, I drink a protein shake that consists of milk and protein powder. Today I added a banana and it made a big difference in my energy level in the morning.

This is crazy, but after just a week and a half of working out, I already feel slimmer. I don't think that my body has made any big changes, but I just feel less bloated somehow. I also think that I have more energy, so my step has a bit more bounce. It is very hard to place, but I like it.

Sleepy

Another sleepy morning today. My husband kept me up watching 30 Days of Night last night and I wanted to get to work a bit early to make up some minutes from yesterday. I went to the gym after dinner for 20 minutes of intervals. It isn't as hard for me to drag myself to the gym on cardio days as it is on lifting days.


My workday was insane. I didn't have time to eat lunch or my afternoon snack. Since I was non-stop busy at work, we decided to go out to dinner. My soup and sandwich combo was probably too high in calories, but since I barely ate anything else all day, I can live with that.

Another Week Begins

I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I knew that I would want to go to the gym even less this evening, though. I had also taken the time to prepare the night before and didn't want that to go to waste. This blog came to mind, too. I didn't want to have to write that I skipped again. Friday didn't bother me much; there was a lot that factored into the decision to sleep in, but doing it again today would not have been cool. So of course I feel much better.

My mid-day snacking was a bit out of control today. A vendor left me a pack of mini m&ms, which on its own is not a big deal. Then, a coworker offered a homemade chocolate chip cookie that I couldn't resist. Since I had already slipped up a bit, I raided the vending machine for a bag of chili cheese Fritos. I know the slippery slope is not the way to go; every decision matters and just because the last decision wasn't the best does not mean the next one should be.