Day 845: Is That Cake ?

 

🖤 Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤

Me: I'm going to lose weight. 

I'm going to exercise every day. 

I'm going to go on a diet and

stick to it.

Also me: Is that cake ?"

Today is day 845 of Nutrisystem. Dieting is hard - don't let anyone tell you otherwise. That being said, when I look back now I feel like the first 100 pounds was easy. These last 50 were tough and the remaining 4 ... well, they're going to be the hardest. I was really good about sticking to the Nutrisystem program for that first year and I didn't often have any extras. This past year a lot of extras have been sneaking in so I'm working on pushing them back out. I could blame it on COVID but that would just be taking the easy way out. It's just me indulging me. I didn't buy scones or cheese curds at the grocery store this week but I bought raisin bread and cornbread. 🙄 The bottom line is I need some extra carbs/calories in my diet based on my activity level BUT I also like carbs ... so this is 50/50 justification vs. need. Say I take in 1300 calories and burn 600 on the treadmill alone ... well, that doesn't leave much to run the body. I had this conversation with a Nutrisystem counselor a year ago and for a while I had added an extra carb on their advice, but when my weight loss stalled I eliminated it again. I've been struggling with my workouts lately - running out of energy during the 2nd or 3rd treadmill workout of the day. I've had a lot more instances of feeling very weak and shaky during or immediately after those workouts. Ironically enough I happened to come across an article about the fat burning zone vs. the cardio zone and it talked about the body's ability to burn fat as fuel when it runs out of stored carbs. The gist of it was that the body can't always burn fat fast enough to keep up with demand. It's possible that is part of my problem. I've tried different things like eating part of my dinner before the 2nd workout or eating in between the 2nd and 3rd. Sometimes that works, but sometimes it doesn't. I never have trouble with the lunchtime workout because I have my protein shake just before it. So maybe for me the extra carb is necessary on active days. Now, the scones were a bad choice because they're all sugar AND I was eating them at all times of the day. They were just a bad habit. Same goes for the cheese curds - I was eating those every night before bed. Is the cornbread a better choice ? I don't know. What I do know is I can eat a very small piece of that and be satisfied. The scones always made me hungrier so I wanted more. The raisin bread is a better choice in that it has more fiber & protein so I'm going to try and refrain from buying the cornbread again and settle for a piece of toast if I need a carb boost. The alternative is to reduce the intensity of my workouts and I really don't want to do that. I actually enjoy my workouts ! So the extra carb is coming back and I will start documenting it in my daily calories .. instead of ignoring those calories like I've ignored all the little "extras" over the past year ! I've also started eating breakfast later. I had been eating as soon as I got up and by mid-morning I'd be starving. So now I'm trying to wait until at least 9 am before I eat. As for the joke about cake ... well, I have dessert too often when I'm away from home. Sunday I indulged myself A LOT and I'm not proud of it. So I need to work on that too. 

Breakfast was a 2.5 ounce 150 calorie buttermilk waffles with sugar free syrup and a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit creme brulee yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 3.8 ounce 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt with a chef salad. Afternoon snack was 1/2 cup cottage cheese (80 calories) and 2 Alyssa's oatmeal cookies (90 calories). Dinner was an 8 ounce 210 calorie chicken teriyaki and roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 1.8 ounce 140 calorie chocolate cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1100 and I got 80 ounces of water in. 

First workout of the day was South Africa with iFit trainer Knox Robinson. Second workout was Romania with iFit trainer John Peel. Last up was Austria with iFit trainer Evan Dollard. I logged 98 minutes, 5.7 miles and 675 calories. My schedule tomorrow adds up to 104 minutes .. we'll see how that goes ! I also put in about 20 minutes on the Total Gym for a lower body workout. Fitbit says I did over 18,000 steps. 

The day started off chilly but it did warm up enough that I could have moved out onto the front porch to work. I didn't because my day was so busy. I got a lot done but I have a big project to work on and really need to put the pedal to the metal tomorrow ! I did sit out on the porch to have my dinner and that was very relaxing ! On that note it's time for a shower and bed !