The challenges of tracking intake

So, yesterday was a big fat FAIL in terms of trying to cut back on calories. For whatever reason, it was just one of those days where I was constantly RAVENOUS. (Caps necessary.) After I posted yesterday, I did manage, with the help of a nice warm cup of orange spice tea, to force myself to wait until about 12:30 to tear into my sandwich. I wolfed that down, along with the rest of my Z-bar, in about 4.2 second flat.

I had a conference call at 2 that dragged on and on and on kept me occupied and distracted enough to avoid eating again until about 3:15. The second it was over, though, I couldn't wait any longer, and dug into my pre-gym Clif bar. Within an hour or so, my stomach was growling AGAIN, despite my second cup of tea. I ate the only other thing I had in my office, which was about 1.5 servings of everything Pretzel Crisps.

Lest you think that would tide me over, friends, fear not -- I felt strong hunger pangs during my workout. Here I am, on the elliptical, just trying to get through my 30 minutes and focus on an ancient edition of People, and all I can do is think about what I'm making for dinner. Um, ABSURD. I had a great lifting session (push -- chest, tris and shoulders), and hustled it back to my house where I feasted on leftover spiedies, frozen veggies and an entire sweet potato, sliced up into rounds and baked at 400 degrees with some cooking spray and season-all.

Altogether, I ended up around 2200 for the day, which is a far cry from the 1800 I was aiming for. But, such is life. Not the end of the world -- those days ALWAYS come up.

Today has been MUCH, much better. I'm well on target for my 1800, and that includes both a midafternoon latte AND a pre-gym Clif bar as well as the usual meals. It's reassuring to know that this isn't some absurdly low number. Counting is a big pain, but I know it's effective, and tracking what I was taking in before was a big help, so that I wasn't just setting some random, arbitrary number. Reducing my count by 500 calories per day SHOULD result in a deficit of 3500 calories each week, or one pound lost.

Tonight is a short workout -- just 20 minutes of intense cardio intervals. I'm hoping to be able to run it (rather than spin my wheels on the stupid elliptical), but we'll see.