A Straigthforward Day

Today was a pretty good day for the diet.  No weird cravings or unplanned activities.  An adequate amount of food in the house.  Plus actually getting some exercise in.  These are the days that used to be routine for me, but have become so rare.  On more than one occasion I would do quite well until dinner...then I'd get a craving for pizza or burgers or something.  Next thing I know I'm eating a two thousand calorie meal.


Today at least it didn't happen.  Food today:  an egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (225 calories), lunch was some chicken tenders and tater tots (727 calories), dinner was whole wheat penne, sauce and garlic toast (1020 calories).  No snacks today.

Exercise today:  another 18 miles on the exercise bike (520 calories)

Totals
Food eaten:  1972
Calories Burned:  520
Daily Points:  1548
Weekly Points:   5357
Total earned: 5357

Social Eating

Today was a good example of one of the hard parts of dieting:  being social.  Friends went out after work to go see a movie.  Ideally of course I would still stick to a specific series of calories while eating my meals at home, and skipping out on unhealthy snacks.  Unfortunately a trip to the movies while not getting popcorn just seems wrong.  Then it's easier to get dinner out rather than make something at home before going to the movie.  The calories have the potential to build up from there.

I was fortunate enough to know I was planning on popcorn, so I was at least able to plan for it.  Some of the other meals were less certain.  I went over my normal calorie goal (and the movie ate up otherwise ideal exercise time), but it wasn't as bad as it could be.  As long as I get back to it tomorrow, I should be good.

Totals
Food eaten:  2187
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  813
Weekly Points:  3809
Total earned: 3809

Resisting Temptation

The first couple weeks of a diet are the hardest.  Resisting the temptations that, just a few days ago, you happily would have given in to is not easy.  Today was definitely defined by that struggle.  Between a work lunch and a party with cake in the office, the temptation to pig out was very high.  Fortunately I was largely able to resist (and by the time I wasn't able to resist, all the cake was gone).  So instead of steak and cheese, I ended up having a couple slices of pizza.  I avoided pure junk food altogether.

Now I just need to string that kind of dedication together for a few more months.

Food today:  Special K and milk for breakfast (350 calories), two slices of pizza and a diet coke for lunch (460 calories) and chicken tenders and tater tots for dinner (928 calories).

Exercise:  none

Totals
Food eaten:  1738
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  1262
Weekly Points:  2996
Total earned: 2996

Three Years Lost

Three years ago I ran my best half-marathon ever.  I was in excellent shape and I was seriously trying to pick out what full marathon I wanted to do next.  All in all, my health was probably as good as it had ever been.

Unfortunately, I went out the next weekend and hurt my knee.  I have a lot of excuses for what came next but a lot of it boils down to my treatment plan for the injury:  sit on my couch and eat pizza.  Sadly that's not a really good recipe for staying healthy.

Since that time I've had a few attempts to get myself healthy again.  Unfortunately, every time I've gotten started it's fallen apart on me.  A review of my "recent" posts here can show a lot of those starts and stops.  This past winter I trained up for another half-marathon, but it was basically like starting from scratch.  I finished the race, but it was also my worst time since I first started running.  Just looking at my finishing photo shows the changes wrought by three years of unhealthy eating.

I've gained back far too much weight.  I held off a bit on my plan to restart my diet plan until after Easter, but as of this morning I weighed in at 273.4 pounds.  Since that race in 2013 I've basically regained 70 pounds.  So I'm restarting the 200k challenge.  I've got a few ideas for rewards during the course of the diet, and I think I may buy a fancy home theater system if I complete it.  However I'm also going to institute a penalty to help keep me honest.

Any week in which I don't accrue at least 7500 points will result in my co-workers pelting me with water balloons.  That particular penalty is subject to change...but I'm hoping their glee to penalize me will help keep me honest.

So today's food and exercise.

Food today:  breakfast was a bowl of Special K (2 cups of cereal and 1 cup of 1% milk) for 350 calories.  Lunch was a 6 inch meatball sub from Subway, a bag of chips and a diet coke (720 calories).  Dinner was a hamburger and a cheeseburger on whole wheat hamburger rolls (600 calories total).  Snack included a little bit of peanut butter (100 calories).

Exercise:  one hour on the exercise bike traveling a distance of 18 miles (504 calories).

Totals
Food eaten:  1770
Calories Burned:  509
Daily Points:  1734
Weekly Points:  1734
Total earned: 1734