Positives and Negatives

Overall I had a fun and productive weekend. And, I didn’t eat my face off from Friday night to Monday morning, something I often do, as if the fact that I’m off the clock for work means that nobody’s paying attention to how much food gets stuffed in my gob.

I’m still having problems tracking what I eat, though. I’ve sorta been doing it, but it’s always well after the fact, like the next day, which means that 1.) it’s waaaaaay less accurate (“how much hummus did I eat??”, “did I even have a snack in the evening??”) and 2.) I don’t get a chance to realize that I’m starting to approach my caloric goal and thus slow the inpact.

I’ve done this for the past three days. None of these days surpassed my cut-off high (at least, according to my memory and estimates), but they were all higher than my target range (I have a target range of about 200 cal, that varies with the amount of activity I do, but then I also have a “WARNING: Do Not Cross” level). On Saturday, when I went to a restaurant for my friend’s birthday I accepted that I was going above my typical target, and my goal was to simply not go above the “WARNING” level. Did this and felt pretty good. Sunday and Monday, however, I thought I was staying within my normal target range and was highly dismayed afterwards to discover that I was considerably higher.

I’m not sure how to get better at this. I do figure that by simply writing it down even after the fact, I’m getting myself more in the habit. However, by doing it afterwards I’m not reaping the actual benefit, which makes me feel like I’m doing the work, but not getting the result (which sucks and is very demotivating!).

Another positive thing I’m doing is wearing my pedometer. I’ve done this over the past couple of days with the intention of hitting 12 500 steps by the end of each day. I’m a numbers person and very competitive (yes, even with myself. Yes, this is kinda weird), so by setting this ongoing goal with myself, I actually do all those extra bits of movement that are always recommended. I take the stairs, I take more little breaks at the office, I volunteer to take the dog on a mini-walk (he’s a puppy and it’s very very cold right now, so we’re going on three or four mini-walks of about 10-15 minutes daily), etc. I’m happy to say that I’ve met or surpassed my goal 4 out of 5 days, and came over 10 000 steps on the other.

Now if I could just bring all these little changes consistently together.