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.

Rainy days and Mondays!

So, I know I've mentioned before how much I love my commute. And I really, really do. But today, when it was raining (not that hard, thankfully!) and WINDY (um, really really hard, unfortunately), I was not quite as enthusiastic.

I have my rainy-day tricks, though. If it rains, I try not to wear pants -- skirts and tights all the way. It works quite nicely with my rainboots. Pants never fit nicely into the boots, and the creases end up getting messed up, so it's skirts every time.

I also have an arsenal of waterproof outerwear -- a full-length raincoat WITH hood, AND a bucket-style rain hat. The hat helps my hood stay up, keeps the water out of my eyes, and gives an extra layer to help keep my hair dry. I swap whatever purse I'd otherwise have been carrying (I should post about that sometime -- I am obsessed with handbags) for this great lululemon faux-leather gym bag that manages to keep everything (papers, lunch, BB, phone, and clutch with the essentials) dry, while still looking professional. On top of all of that, I carry a trusty umbrella.

But, yes. About that "trusty" umbrella. And the gale force winds. You see, today, the wind was SO crazy that it ever-so-slightly bent the stem of my umbrella. And when it bent the stem, that somehow weakened whatever mechanism kept the collapsable stem from, well, collapsing. And that, my friends, is how I found myself chasing the top portion of my umbrella (you know, the useful part that keeps the rain away) down 21st Street with the handle in my hand.

Le sigh. On top of all of this, I am just STARVIN' today. Today is day one of my attempts to cut roughly 500 calories from my previous diet. One of my cuts was to trade my normal large skim latte for a small (85 calories vs. 160). I also switched the fruit-flavored Chobani in my usual breakfast of Chobani, 1/4c granola, and fruit (typically berries or a banana) for plain (120 vs 160 calories for the yogurt).

Um, and now it's 11:40 am, and I've already eaten nearly all of my apple and a giant bite of my Z-bar in an effort to stave off my panging stomach. I'm SURE a cup of milk and some sugar wasn't keeping me that satiated, so I'm hoping this is not an everyday occurrence...but we'll see. It's taking every fiber of my being to wait until noon to tear into my sandwich. If I don't wait, it's going to be an ETERNITY of an afternoon.

Happy Monday!

PITA continued...

Oh man. My legs and my glutes have not been this sore in a long, LONG time. Tonight was 30 minutes of cardio and "pull" lifting...I planned to do my usual elliptical routine, which is the "random" program at level 11. I lasted about 40 seconds before I had to bump the resistance/level down to 7. Good grief, my butt...and my legs...are KILLING me!

So, it's been almost one week of tracking my food intake. Most days, as I said, I averaged 2300-2400 calories. Yesterday was significantly higher -- much closer to 3000 -- because we went out to dinner at Mixto. Paella, a couple of glasses of wine, and half a gigantic slice of red velvet cake will do that!

But today -- I was very surprised to see how much lower my calories were. Pretty much without trying, I'm just under 1500 calories for today. I had my usual breakfast -- Chobani, quarter cup of granola, and berries, with a large skim latte -- and lunch -- sandwich with hummus, turkey, spinach and fat free cheese on an Arnold's sandwich thin, with pretzel chips on the side. The difference, I think, is that I ate lunch much, much later, and so between running errands, the dog park and the gym, there was no time for snacking between meals, whereas typically, at work, I'll have two snacks (apple with cheese, and a pre-gym snack of Clif bar or a second latte).

Finally, I leave you with this. I had said before that I didn't have a good "before" picture, because I've been more or less avoiding cameras. And yeah, I was. But I did find this one, from a black-tie fundraiser event Mike and I went to in November at the Please Touch Museum:



The angle in this is kind of flattering (sad to say), but I think you can really see the weight gain in my face, and my arms are nowhere near as cut as they were last year. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if I'd put on a couple pounds since this picture was taken, but I think it gives a good idea of where I'm starting from. (I do LOVE this dress, though, and if [when!] it gets too big for me, I am SO having it taken in.)

Pain in the butt...

literally, and figuratively.

First, the literal: last night was "legs" night. The Oxygen routine I have chosen to follow had me doing plenty of glute work. Squats, lunges, those weird donkey kick-back things (I had hoped this would work my hams as well, and perhaps it did, but they're not particularly sore)...also, stiff-legged deadlifts and seated and standing calf raises. I'm still a little challenged with the lack of equipment but am making some good substitutions. Deadlifts, for example -- instead of fighting with the 45-lb dumbbells, which I have a hard time holding (not to be confused with LIFTING -- grip and forearm strength, I do not has it), I used 20-lb AND 5-lb dumbbells. Once I figured out how to hold both at once, I just upped my reps from 8 to 12 and voila, effort!

It's still not perfect -- I cannot wait until they finish the new gym and I can actually use a STRAIGHT BAR with REAL WEIGHTS -- but one must adapt!

Now, the figurative: MAN, is it a PITA to write down everything I eat. But it's been very enlightening. I haven't changed my habits at all this week, since my goal was to see where my baseline is, and I am pretty surprised at my calorie intake. Looks like I've been averaging 2300-2400 calories per day. And really, I bet it was more -- even though I have not INTENTIONALLY tried to change my habits yet, this has been a comparatively good week. No DiBruno's wraps or bagel breakfasts (ok, except for today -- and I gotta say, it wasn't particularly delicious). But this is VERY educational. I know this kind of monitoring isn't for everyone, but I am the master of excuses and justifications, so seeing it there in black and white is pretty necessary for me.

Today is a "rest day" on my Oxygen plan, and thank god, because it honestly hurt to put on underwear this morning. And to sit down in my chair here at work. I'm looking forward to blowing through this day and starting my weekend -- maybe by soaking my sore butt in a bubble bath.

Happy Friday all! Any fun plans?