Friday Update

Quick update on how the first week back to sanity is going:

Food-wise:
I swear, I feel like I’m in detox this week, at least early in the week. 1500 calories and I was still hungry at the end of the day.  I was resenting how many calories fruit and veggies have because it meant I had to give up something else more filling.  Crazy, huh?  It was weird not to have a bunch of sugar.  Yesterday and today though, my appetite has started to get the hint.  Yesterday I finished the day around 1300 calories and just wasn’t hungry.  Today, I’m not feeling ravenous either.

I think the worst is over, but I still have some bad habits to break.  I think I did right by banning chocolate this week and limiting myself mostly to sugar free popsicles for desert (though I did splurge on about 1/3 cup of soft serve and a drizzle of caramel at the salad bar).  I’m ok having stuff out occasionally but I need to put the stop to having pinches of chocolate chips/spoons of fudge/etc.  Once I get through a few weeks, I’ll allow myself again if it works into my calories that day, but for now, I want to unlearn the habit.

Another thing that absolutely stops is the going to the fridge to feed my face snacktimes.  Fine when I need to make sure I’m keeping up my energy for a race, because I’m not usually eating junk food when I do that , but it’s not fine while I’m trying again to lose.  If I want a snack, I get a measured amount of it, eat it, and then be done.  No eating with the fridge still open.   Again, doing better since my appetite is going back to normal, but still something to watch for.

Workout-wise:
I’m still feeling compelled to burn at least 3000 calories this week, but it’s been at a much lower intensity.  Bike riding has been a little hard to do in 104 degree heat, but we’ve gone twice for short mellow rides.  The pool was great.  I’ve done lots of DDR and yoga and weights at home.  We are hoping to do an epic bike ride Sunday, and if not, the back up plan is ice skating.  I even gave myself permission to do as little as needed this week if my body needed it but this is just reinforcing that moving my ass is now an ingrained part of my life.  If for no other reason than I feel great when I do it.  I might do a *little* less if I wasn’t training for anything and/or trying to take off weight, but still.  Probably not much.

Also, 3 days until the running ban is lifted.  I am ready to take these legs out and see what they can do on some short distance training!  Next week I think I’ll limit myself to 2 easy runs though – after a week off I might need a little warmup!  I do think the first order of running business is to work on improving my mile and 5k times.  I think I can shatter both my records of 7:50/mile and 27:19/5k, and it’s perfect to do in the morning – it’s cool outside and it doesn’t take much time!

Mental-wise:
Besides battling with the want to run (mostly for the stress relief, it’s been a heckuva week here at work) and dealing with the mental letdown of actually having to watch what I shove in my mouth again, it’s been nice.  I have just been going with the flow this week.  My workout plan hasn’t panned out exactly how I imagined it most days, but I’ve been getting lots of mellow activity, and I’m feeling great.   I admit I feel a little lost without something specific to be working towards, but that should resolve itself in the next week or two.  As my neurotic mind starts getting antsy, my common sense kicks in and says, “chill, baby”.  And chill, I have been.

Weight-wise:
Well, I saw a number Monday morning that did not make me happy: 155.6.  However, after a workout it read 153.6.  Same thing the next day – 155.0 to 153.0.  I’ve weighed now everything from 155.6 to 152.6.  I’m counting the low weight for the weigh in, of course, but I’m hoping by Monday everything stabilizes.  Considering TOM just started, that might be a pipe dream.  However, even the high weights have been steadily going down all week, so I think once I finish “detoxing” myself, I hope to see the 140’s soon!

The plans here for the weekend are relaxing tonight (maybe some DDR, 1vs100, and some other gaming fun).  Saturday we are hitting David’s bridal to try on dresses, Sephora for some wedding makeup ideas, and a summer camp themed party on Saturday night.  Then… either that epic bike ride or ice skating Sunday.  Should be a good few days!  What do you have planned this weekend, peoples?