M.lb. - Week 3
Day 15
April 14, 2008
Weight: x - 1
Progress: It's taken two weeks, but I've finally seen some (albeit small) results. I'm down one pound from when I started this thing, and yet I'm still frustrated by a number of issues that I feel are keeping me from really progressing.
Firstly, I'm frustrated by the fact that a single pound could represent little more than a standard weight fluctuation -- and if that's the case, my progress over two weeks has been minimal at best. I understand that I'm not necessarily eating as well as I could, but every day I try to do at least a little rough math on my calorie intake and I find it very hard to fathom that, given the amount of exercising I'm doing in comparison with how relatively little I'm eating, my progress has been this slow. I feel like when I was doing this junior year, I was eating far more in a day than I am now, and was seeing much better results much sooner. I'm trying to remain focus, but I'm putting a lot of effort into this and the snail's pace that it's going at has me pretty irritated.
In addition, I fear for what could happen if I take, say, a weekend and let myself go a little bit. I know for a fact that a great deal of my current weight issues stems from one week of vacation last summer, and while that was an exceptional example of letting myself go, I still wonder if all this is being held in such a tenuous balance that if I slip just a little, the whole thing will fall apart. That's a bigger worry than any other because, while I know I can be good and keep this together for awhile, I don't want to feel like all the work can be undone in one fell swoop because that will kill my motivation.
Fortunately, I still feel good working out. I haven't significantly tired yet, even though I upped my output to six days a week (Thursdays are just unreasonable in terms of working out), and I've been trying to do something cardio-related for at least 30 minutes, and in most cases 40 minutes. That adds up to roughly 400-500 calories a session, which puts me at right around the same weekly pace I was at a few years ago. I'm thinking perhaps the next step is to start eliminating potential problem foods from the diet in order to keep pace.
Goals for the Week: The main goal is to keep up the exercise and try to start doing something about the food. Beth's advice about "the sigh" is great, and I wish I'd have followed it last night as it would have saved me a significant streak of discomfort. At this point, however, I really only give myself a treat once a week -- and by a treat, I mean a whole meal that's not ideal (like the Five Guys I finally gave in and had for lunch today). I've been feeling like it's okay because I'm doing the exercise too, but I think it's time I started really concentrated on making smart eating choices when I have a choice -- and that includes not eating to excess at parties and/or social functions.
The other major goal, in keeping with the theory of "the sigh," is to simply start working on portion control. Last time around I let my body naturally start relying on less and less food, but I need to take a more diligent role in making it happen this time. I need to pay attention to my eating, and especially the amount of water I drink with meals, as that affects my stomach capacity immensely. Mostly, I need to start feeling unafraid to put something aside as a leftover and save it for another day; if I can start making one big meal turn into two smaller meals, I won't get that full-up feeling that I hate and I'll probably be able to deal better with eating, which is really the source of all this.
Two weeks down, and we're finally getting somewhere. Let's hope to keep the trend alive next week!
April 14, 2008
Weight: x - 1
Progress: It's taken two weeks, but I've finally seen some (albeit small) results. I'm down one pound from when I started this thing, and yet I'm still frustrated by a number of issues that I feel are keeping me from really progressing.
Firstly, I'm frustrated by the fact that a single pound could represent little more than a standard weight fluctuation -- and if that's the case, my progress over two weeks has been minimal at best. I understand that I'm not necessarily eating as well as I could, but every day I try to do at least a little rough math on my calorie intake and I find it very hard to fathom that, given the amount of exercising I'm doing in comparison with how relatively little I'm eating, my progress has been this slow. I feel like when I was doing this junior year, I was eating far more in a day than I am now, and was seeing much better results much sooner. I'm trying to remain focus, but I'm putting a lot of effort into this and the snail's pace that it's going at has me pretty irritated.
In addition, I fear for what could happen if I take, say, a weekend and let myself go a little bit. I know for a fact that a great deal of my current weight issues stems from one week of vacation last summer, and while that was an exceptional example of letting myself go, I still wonder if all this is being held in such a tenuous balance that if I slip just a little, the whole thing will fall apart. That's a bigger worry than any other because, while I know I can be good and keep this together for awhile, I don't want to feel like all the work can be undone in one fell swoop because that will kill my motivation.
Fortunately, I still feel good working out. I haven't significantly tired yet, even though I upped my output to six days a week (Thursdays are just unreasonable in terms of working out), and I've been trying to do something cardio-related for at least 30 minutes, and in most cases 40 minutes. That adds up to roughly 400-500 calories a session, which puts me at right around the same weekly pace I was at a few years ago. I'm thinking perhaps the next step is to start eliminating potential problem foods from the diet in order to keep pace.
Goals for the Week: The main goal is to keep up the exercise and try to start doing something about the food. Beth's advice about "the sigh" is great, and I wish I'd have followed it last night as it would have saved me a significant streak of discomfort. At this point, however, I really only give myself a treat once a week -- and by a treat, I mean a whole meal that's not ideal (like the Five Guys I finally gave in and had for lunch today). I've been feeling like it's okay because I'm doing the exercise too, but I think it's time I started really concentrated on making smart eating choices when I have a choice -- and that includes not eating to excess at parties and/or social functions.
The other major goal, in keeping with the theory of "the sigh," is to simply start working on portion control. Last time around I let my body naturally start relying on less and less food, but I need to take a more diligent role in making it happen this time. I need to pay attention to my eating, and especially the amount of water I drink with meals, as that affects my stomach capacity immensely. Mostly, I need to start feeling unafraid to put something aside as a leftover and save it for another day; if I can start making one big meal turn into two smaller meals, I won't get that full-up feeling that I hate and I'll probably be able to deal better with eating, which is really the source of all this.
Two weeks down, and we're finally getting somewhere. Let's hope to keep the trend alive next week!
posted by Dave at 4/14/2008 02:29:00 PM
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