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<\/p>\nI am not an idiot.<\/p>\n
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A pizza-eating-sunglasses-inside-wearing giant dork?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 But not an idiot.<\/em><\/p>\n I mean, sure, I do stupid things.\u00a0 I make bad decisions.\u00a0 I go with the “feels good now” choice versus the “will actually push me towards my goals” choice more often than I’d like to admit.\u00a0 Sometimes I eat birthday cake even though I KNOW I will instantly regret that decision (stomachache, calories, etc).\u00a0 Sometimes I stay downtown and party with the band that we just met and go into questionable dive bars and play flippy cup with the bartenders instead of going home before sundown like a good little triathlete.\u00a0 Sometimes I’ll go for the fun bike ride with the team instead of doing my speedwork.\u00a0 Sometimes I binge watch a season of a show on Netflix I’ve seen five times instead of finishing a writing, movie, or art project.<\/p>\n However, I do these knowing full well that I am making the “right now” choice vs the actual right choice.\u00a0 So, I’m not an idiot.\u00a0 I promise.\u00a0 I’m just GREAT at self sabotage.<\/p>\n Delicious, amazing, decadent self-sabotage.<\/em><\/p>\n I know the reason I haven’t been losing weight even if I’d rather bitch about it the last few months than actually DO anything.\u00a0 My calorie output is approximately 2200 per day (and that’s improved from the roughly 2k or less I was seeing when the air was trying to kill me with either allergies or freezing temperatures), and I’m TRACKING 1800-1900 average per day, which means I’m probably consuming a little more than that.\u00a0 Studies show that even dieticians<\/a> under-track their consumption so I am sure I’m doing that too.\u00a0 It’s just hard to be so meticulous.<\/p>\n Instead of getting batshit crazy and tracking every crumb (I just had a conversation with my husband about whether he should track his GUM intake since he’s on this crazy handbasket to hell with me this time…), I’m just going to aim for a lower number to make sure, errors or not, I maintain a deficit.\u00a0 This week begins the attempt at 1500 calories average per day.\u00a0\u00a0 The last two months have been pushing an importance of #1 – diet quality and then #2 – calories.\u00a0 Now, I’m reversing the order.\u00a0 The most important thing is to stay as close to the 1500 number as possible.\u00a0 Of close second importance is diet quality, but if one has to win over the other, calorie count is king.<\/p>\n This sounds like a very subtle difference, but it’s actually pretty significant in how I handle situations that challenge me vs my goals.\u00a0 It feels a little bit dirty sometimes (I really want a Not an apple, but about as many calories as a large one.<\/em><\/p>\n When I eat super clean, 1500 is plenty for nutritional purposes.\u00a0 For example, yesterday I ate:<\/p>\n *Yep, I’m making this week a no brainer by using a meal service.\u00a0 I <3 Snap Kitchen when kickstarting something like #projectraceweight because it’s easy to eat healthy food that’s pretty flippin’ delicious. This works out to about 1500 calories and 31 DQ points.\u00a0 One off a perfect score – just can’t justify switching out that last dark chocolate square for a piece of fruit instead to hit that +1.\u00a0 I’ll live with that.<\/p>\n I rode my bike for 45 minutes easy-peasy-like in the evening and got my 10k steps for the day with walks, burning approximately 2300 calories and with a -800 calorie deficit.\u00a0 Day one done.\u00a0 If I can do this 5 days in a row, I will mathematically have lost just a little over 1 lb.\u00a0 If I can keep this up consistently for the nine weeks before I go on vacation, I can lose almost 15 lbs.<\/p>\n However, I know how this goes.\u00a0 I need to have an escape hatch every once in a while.\u00a0 Sometimes you have to splurge.\u00a0 So, once a week, I’ll allow myself to take in closer to maintenance calories – or around 2000.\u00a0 I can attempt to make that up, by eating a little less on the days around it, burning a little more (though my training schedule is pretty set and intentionally fairly consistent), or just accept that I’ll go a little slower.\u00a0 If I eat 2000 calories once a week for the next 9 weeks, I’ll lose 13.5 lbs instead of 15.\u00a0 However, that math is a great reminder that every little decision I make counts.\u00a0 Passing on an order of fries once a week is the difference of 1.5 lbs of fat loss over two months.\u00a0 That doesn’t suck.<\/p>\n My lovely french fry friends… it’s not you.\u00a0 It’s me.\u00a0 I just need some space.\u00a0 We’ll be together again soon.<\/em><\/p>\n So, I embark on #projectraceweight for the third time (and many other times before that under a different name).\u00a0 While it’s frustrating that none of them have actually succeeded, I’m starting a little lighter (186.0 today) and in better shape each time (I’m coming off six weeks of heavy weight training, BULKING, if you will, not couch sitting like the previous two years).\u00a0 And that doesn’t suck either.<\/p>\n It’s easy to be weak willed when faced with a goal months away vs the chocolate cake in my face (one slip up can’t hurt, right?), so I’m going to write out all the reasons why losing that 15 lbs would be awesome, in no particular order.<\/p>\n So key points for me to remember until May 20th:<\/p>\n Like I said, day one is done.\u00a0 And I didn’t fall face first onto a plate of french fries.\u00a0 Day two has started.\u00a0 Six-one more to go.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Jul26-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nbottle<\/del> glass of whiskey, and I’m going to not eat dinner<\/del> an apple so I have those calories).\u00a0 In all honesty, it’s not the best long term solution, but it is the *only* way I lose weight that doesn’t make me go completely bonkers.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Oct17-3.jpg\")
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