"Step away from the chocolate!"

Chocolate is going to be the end of me. I keep telling myself, "I can stop at a serving", but I can't. I never can. I was within my calorie range today and had a decent deficit, but it wasn't done by eating things I want to put into my body every day.

Day 5 (Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010)

Cals eaten: 1792
Cals used (workouts only): 498
Net Cals: 1294
BMR * 1.2 = 1937
Net Cal Deficit: 643

My diet & fitness journal notes for the day: Today's goal met: no, mood: 7, energy level: 7. "Step away from the chocolate!"

I burned my calories by doing the Weight Watchers Get Moving Mix Cardio Dance DVD for 20 minutes this morning and The Firm Ride the Wave and Speed Slimming Sculpt Express DVDs for a total of 33 minutes this evening.


My name is Kimberly, and I am a chocoholic. This afternoon at lunch, I ran home, packed a healthy meal and zoomed out the door so I could go to Alco (our Wal-Mart type store), for a few necessities. I conscientiously pulled up to the store thinking that I would be leaving with some sort of treat. That should have been a big, blaring warning sign for me. I left with a Twix and a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I ate the Twix right after lunch and about half of the PB Cups about 3 hours later. I was fortunate, though. All of that sweetness made me feel miserable. My stomach hurt, I felt bloated and I even contemplated not working out tonight. The horror! I compensated a bit by eating a low-calorie, but satisfying dinner and pushing through my workout. It wasn't so hard, but I don't want to do that again tomorrow, or any other day for that matter.

I'm also facing a bit of concern from MM. He feels I may be working out too much. I definitely understand his concern, but I'm listening to my body and taking it easy on days I feel it's necessary. I'm such a sedentary person that I think it's okay if, on my day "off", I take a 30-minute walk. Time will tell, but I did promise MM that I will be careful. He's also a bit concerned that I may cut too many calories, but I am eating until I'm satisfied. My gauge is a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being painfully hungry and 10 being painfully full. I'd love to eat until I'm at 5 every time I eat, but it's closer to 6 and maybe even 7. I'm definitely not feeling hungry all day, so I'm sure I'm getting enough cals in. Again, time will tell and I will make adjustments if necessary.

I am proud of myself for getting through 5 full days with a positive attitude and definite results, even if the results aren't physical!

I'm feeling good

Today didn't end up being the day I wanted it to be calorie intake/output wise, but I have such a positive outlook right now that I'm able to see past it. Here's today's breakdown:

Day 4 (Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010)

Cals eaten: 2096
Cals used (workouts only): 189
Net Cals: 1907
BMR * 1.2 = 1937
Net Cal Deficit: 30

My diet & fitness journal notes for the day: Today's goal met: no, mood: 7, energy level: 7. "Today was another productive day & I love all the energy I have!"

I burned my calories by doing a Bellydance Boogie DVD (tons of fun!) this evening.


Now I know that any sane person would tell me that I'm not going to lose weight with only a deficit of 30 calories and I heartily agree. The lesson I learned from all of this is that I cannot track my food at night after I've eaten it all. I HAVE to track it as I eat, or as soon thereafter as practical, to know where I stand. I'm moving on and focusing on doing things right tomorrow.

I'm feeling SO great, though. My energy level has been sky-high just since making changes to my workout regimen and eating habits on Sunday. The house is neater, the laundry is actually put away and I have given myself the gift of additional free time every evening so far. I've been getting up earlier than I thought I ever would and I just feel so clean, even with the slip-ups I've had. I haven't weighed myself, but if I did this morning and the scale hadn't changed, I know I would still have a smile on my face because I can feel my body changing. Praise the Lord for that!!!

Well, at least it's a deficit!

Today started out just GRAND. I got up, did a 30-minute workout, fixed a healthy, healthy breakfast and then did my quiet time. I also actually made it to work on time in spit of all of that. Then, the munchies hit. I think it had to do with the fact that I had eaten breakfast so much earlier than usual and didn't have a healthy snack at the ready. What do I do? I go get a bag of Reese's Pieces and a Diet Coke. Only problem was that it was a jumbo bag that contained a whopping 800 calories. I didn't eat the whole thing in one sitting, though. I ate some, then put the rest in the break room to "share" with my coworkers. Then, I came back in from lunch, saw that some pieces remained and ate the rest. Sigh. Here's the day's totals:

Day 3 (Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010)

Cals eaten: 2256
Cals used (workouts only): 544
Net Cals: 1712
BMR * 1.2 = 1937
Net Cal Deficit: 225

My diet & fitness journal notes for the day: Today's goal met: yes, mood: 7, energy level: 7. "Blah. That's all I have to say about that."

I burned my calories by doing two workouts; one 30 minute bellydance dvd at 6:00 a.m. and a 50-minute evening workout that consisted of a warm-up, The P.B.*, 30 minutes of jogging and a cool-down/stretch session.

*The P.B. is 5 sets of 10 of the following: push-ups (on my knees for now), squats, cable rows and lunges on each leg.


I KNOW that a deficit is still a deficit and I'm happy that I still came out on top. What I'm bummed about is letting those little peanut butter candies get the best of me today. I saw my motivational letter in my drawer and actively averted my eyes every time I reached in for another piece of candy. My goals for tomorrow are to stay on track, don't allow myself to buy anything off-plan and to take it easy for the day. I'm all hopped up on workouts and it would be easy to continue that trend tomorrow. My body does need a rest, so I'm just going to do 30-minutes of low-impact cardio after work and possibly do a 30-minute walk during lunch.

Well, that is all for day 3. I already feel better having typed this out and knowing that I have a plan in place to keep from making the same mistake tomorrow.

Getting Into the Swing of Things

Well, Day 1 and 2 are over and I'm happy to say that I have done well. I have had a few hiccups thus far, but nothing too horrendous! I'll get right into the dirty details...

Day 1 (Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010)

Cals eaten: 1677
Cals used (workouts only): 600
Net Cals: 1077
BMR * 1.2 = 1937
Net Cal Deficit: 860

My diet & fitness journal notes for the day: Today's goal met: yes, mood: 6 (out of 8), energy level: 5 (out of 8). "Today was a good first day. Tracking is a bit rough, but I'm sure it'll get easier."

I burned my calories by doing two workouts; one 30 minute 2 mph walk during lunch and a 50 minute evening workout that consisted of a warm-up, 5 grinders* and a cool-down/stretch.

*One grinder = 40 jumping jacks, 1 back yard lap (1/25 of a mile) at highest intensity possible, 40 mountain climbers, another lap, 40 jump ropes, another lap, 4 squat thrusts, and a high-intensity half-lap with the remainder of the lap being recovery.

Day 2 (Monday, Jan. 18, 2010)

Cals eaten: 1745
Cals used (workouts only): 653
Net Cals: 1092
BMR * 1.2 = 1937
Net Cal Deficit: 845

My diet & fitness journal notes for the day: Today's goal met: yes, mood: 6, energy level: 6. "I've felt hungry all day...not a good feeling!"

I burned my calories by doing 3 workouts; one 30 minute lunchtime walk at 2 mph, one low-intensity bellydance dvd for 30 minutes and one high-intensity bellydance dvd for 30 minutes.

I will get into more detail about how I'm hoping to achieve my goals in later posts, but my basic plan is to maintain a certain net calorie deficit per week eating healthy, unprocessed foods. To begin, I calculated my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). You can find a great BMR calculator here. Clicking on the links will reveal a wealth of useful information. I then considered how much weight I wanted to lose. Slow, healthy weight loss is a sure priority, so my goal is to lose 1.5 - 2 lbs. a week. Since a 3500 calorie deficit will equal 1 lb. of weight loss, I am shooting for a calorie deficit of 5250 - 7000 per week. Easy enough? I wish. That is the logical side of weight loss, the emotional side is what gets to me.

Sunday was a pretty great day. I was really proud of myself for getting two workouts in as well as for having a better energy level than I have in the past few weeks. I was very productive around the house, so I know that there are an untold number of calories that were burned during my semi-aggressive cleaning. I felt satisfied with what I was eating and made a conscientious effort to really enjoy my food. I was even able to budget in two glasses of white wine to enjoy with the Mountain Man, or MM (my husband), out by the fire last night.

Monday was, well, acceptable. I woke up feeling dehydrated and headachey, the classic hangover. Apparently, two glasses of wine is above my limit, so I will limit it to one glass per week from now on. I made sure to down an ample amount of water and some tylenol and pressed on with my day. I believe the hungry feeling was a result of my not eating at the correct intervals. I was busy getting the house cleaned and wanted to get just one more thing done before I ate my next snack or meal. I did get all three of my planned workouts in, but I didn't have the energy throughout the workouts that I typically do. Another problem I encountered was that I ate dinner too fast to make it to bible study on time. I will need to plan my Mondays more carefully to avoid that. Finally, I ate every meal today while doing something else, whether that was watching tv, piddling around on the internet or doing honest to goodness work. That will be another food problem that I will be working on.

I am optimistic that tomorrow will be a better day. It will be a test since I'm at work...I tend to eat more poorly there than at home. I am glad that I had two days to "prepare" and, armed with my tools for weight loss, I'm sure I'll have a successful day!