Day 38 - Some Secrets

Thursday,  July 30, 2015

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, even though I used to skip it all the time. Mmm, breakfast foods. And there are so many healthy options! Options I think are so tasty thy feel like cheating.

Oatmeal!  I love oatmeal to an excess. The flavored kinds that is. Except for raisin. Though give me a box of raisins and I. Am. Set.

So mornings usually start off well. I don't run into problems until later in the day.

If I'm running late I eat two oatmeal packets and call it a win. With an 1800 calorie budget I mix it up some. With the new 1200 goal I'm having to cut back a little. The new plan involves a breakfast budget of approximately 300 calories. A bowl of cereal with milk. Two packets of oatmeal. One packet plus one of the following: fruit or juice (like apple or cranberry juice), an egg, or a yogurt. Mmmm.

Too many calories to eat them all at once, but my stomach isn't big enough to eat them all at once anyway.

I'm evaluating my favorite "smoothie" right now. I don't have a blender, so I fill an old style thermos with a lid cup,  and I SHAKE. My two favorite recipes are these.

1.) Approx. 3/4 cup strawberry yogurt, 3/4 cup vanilla soy milk, 3/4 cranberry juice, and 1-2 scoops vanilla whey powder.  Queue the SHAKE. It's so op fun and stress relieving. Unless you over fill the thermos and there's no room left for the contents to shake...

2.) Same approx. proportions. Coffee, soy milk, yogurt, and whey powder. This one is also delicious, but smells a little like those funky brown cookies. You know the ones. I don't know exactly what they are. Some kind of shortbread. But you know.

I meant to exercise this week, but the hot and humid is intimidating me, which means, woe, no succeeding on that front.

Still weighing in at an unfaltering 191.6 lbs. WTF.

Yay! Approx. 1600 calories today! Progress!

Day 36 - 37 Come on, Leaf!

"Ginger sesame chickpea/black bean salad with kale and broccoli and pineapple teriyaki chicken. Still had oatmeal this morning which isn't protein, but really, how can you go wrong with oatmeal. ~400 calories."

This was Day 36, Day 1 of my new calorie goal, first day of my new leaf.

And it went so well! Not. Did not even meet the old goal of 1760. Clocked on at approximately 1,920 calories with approximately 1,830 calories, on Day 37, so at least it wasn't my old average of 2,500 calories and surplus. 

Okay, so maybe I didn't do so bad. 

Day 37 started so well, too! One package of apple-cinnamon oatmeal with a sliced banana and one egg for breakfast.  

Another egg, two ham medallions, and more chickpea salad for lunch... and then there were free cookies...

And then I hit my 10,000 step goal for the day with steps to spare! 

And then I ate out. 

So. 

I'm not sure what the final tally is on that one. 

Day 35 - Success

"Day 35. Perfect calorie score. 1786. With a goal of 1780. Now it's time to get to work! Screw gradual! Gonna shock my system! New goal! 1200."

It even included a cake pop.  :)

Day 29 - 34 Mini Vaca

Day 29 - Day 34
July 21 - July 26

Day 31
2,613 calories.

Day 32
1,741 calories.

Day 33
3,332 calories.

Day 34
1,590

A mini vacation weekend with family. No exercise and spotty calorie counts. Could be worse, so I won't count it as a loss, but it's not quite a win either.

Day 28 - Calorie Goal

Yeah, I did not exercise. But I did well on calories, until I had a glass of cider. Yum cider. Cider is healthy, though.

I'm getting the hang of an 1800 calorie a day diet so I'm thinking about giving myself a week to cement the habit and then trying to cut back again, maybe to 1500? Small steps.

Day 27 - Waffle!!!

Yeah. I ate waffles and SYRUP and sausage and chicken. Deee-licious.

And I saw a concert.

And I walked fast.

So there...!

...

Day 14 - 26 Mystery Yumm...

Day 14 - July 6th - Monday
Day 15 - July 7th - Tuesday
Day 16 - July 8th - Wednesday
Day 17 - July 9th - Thursday
Day 18 - July 10th - Friday
Day 19 - July 11th - Saturday
Day 20 - July 12th - Sunday
Day 21 - July 13th - Monday
Day 22 - July 14th - Tuesday
Day 23 - July 15th - Wednesday
Day 24 - July 16th - Thursday
Day 25 - July 17th - Friday
Day 26 - July 18th - Saturday

Yeah... Day 14 to 25 are gonna be a bit of a mystery. I was doing a no tech thing and wasn't logging, but I did my best to keep my calories in range by counting... kind of. Well, as best as I could guess. But I kind of ate a lot of garbage at the same time. Mmm, cake. I'm going to say I did pretty darn well, especially since, yesterday, my first day back on the logs, I hit it right on the freakin' head, until I had a double pour glass of cider. My bad? Anyway. If anything, I've lost 0.5-1.0lbs. So I'm not gaining and I've tipped the scale! My junk cravings are way down and my body craves healthy foods within its calorie range! Win! I didn't do my Zumba but I did some yoga and sprinting, both of which felt lovely.

Muscle toxins, we shall beat you yet!

Day 13 - Cardiovascular!

Day 13 - July 5 - Sunday

Enjoyed some nice outside time. Beautiful weather.

Decent eating with some snacking.

And I think I did an hour fifteen or so of cardio movement! Yay!

Day 10-12 - July Fourth!

Day 10 - July 2 - Thursday

Did some socialization and rewatched the second Star Trek movie. Yay, Trek, and exhaustion from a busy week full of lack of exercise.

Day 11 - July 3 - Friday

A day off for the holiday!  Love long weekends.  And my first under calorie budget day, despite some early celebrating! Super proud of myself. Plus a two mile walk in 40 minutes, broken up by a 10 minute break at a farm stand,  the result of which was a bag of 3lbs for the walk back.

Then I zumba'd.  I set some lofty goals for myself and feel I did well.

I'm still evaluating what exercises I need. I've been doing mostly strength focused and I think I need to hit the cardio harder...

Day 12 - July 4 - Saturday

Happy fourth! Spent the day lazing, my idea of perfect celebration. Or maybe the lazing was a recuperation from Friday's workout.

Day 9 - Macronutrients Revision

Well, I double checked my facts, because 40% carbs,  and 30% each of fat and protein seemed low for protein and high for carbs in a diabetic-friendly low-carb, high-protein diet. And it was.

So, revision. A goal of 130g of carbs pet day per this diabetic website, and 40% of an 1800 calorie diet as protein, or .8-1.5g of protein per pound of body weight (I misplaced this source again, but read it in multiple places).

So the revision is an 1800 calorie goal, broken into 30% carbohydrates, 40% protein, and 30% fat.