Snacks in progress

My mission from last week was to get my after-work snacking under control, and I found a technique that worked for me.  There's a million and one studies out there about how people who log their food do better than those who don't.  There's a very simple reason for this, you see what you've eaten in plain black and white, staring you in the face.  If you see that you've shoved 3 pieces of pizza and a slice of cake down your gullet you may think twice about that ice cream sunday later....and it really does work, it gives you a moment of pause and reflection.  In that vein, what I did this week as part of my after-work snacking habit is I sat down with my tracker.  When I got home from work, I made myself a cup of tea or poured a glass of water and sat down at the table and went over my tracker.  Did I write everything down that I had eaten thus far?  Sometimes I didn't so I had to add foods in.  Where are my daily values?  How many points do I have left (I like the points, tracking all the individual numbers just gives me a headache...I AM NOT a numbers person, if you like keeping track of the cals, protein, fat, carbs, fiber...etc...be my guest)?  After a drink and sitting and looking at everything, I could decide if I was in fact still hungry and it gave me focus to make the best decision possible for an after work snack.  So I think I created a new habit/tool for myself this week and will continue to use it to help my absent-minded snacking.

I lost 2 pounds this week, so that's almost all the weight I put on over the holidays so I'm happy with that.  What is my mission this week?  I'm going to get my butt back into the gym.  I am no longer a one-person household which now means that I will have help doing all the things that need to be done.  Part of that means that I have to take time to focus on me and that means taking time to go to the gym.  I need to practice for that 5K and I have the membership so I need to use it, especially because the sidewalks are still too narrow/dangerous to try running with the dogs outside.  My mission this week is to get my exercise in, through a mix of gym time and wii.  I also want to log my steps and average HR using the awesome pedometer/HR monitor watch my parents got me for christmas.  Of course I'm very sad at it's dramatic decrease in price after the holidays...if I'd have known I would not have asked for it for Christmas because I'm afraid to find out how much my awesome parents paid for it....

Here's to an activity filled week my friends!

Signed Up and a New Year

I signed up for a race on March 20th.  I'm running the Get Your Rear in Gear Colon Cancer Coalition 5K on March 20th.  When I found this race I decided I would sign up for it.  It's enough weeks into the year to give me time to get up to "fighting" strength but not enough time to slack off, I'm also running it because my mother is a colon cancer survivor so it's a cause I can get behind (haha).  I also got my friend Julius to run with me and then he challenged me back with "run the 10K bridge run in October with me" so I agreed.  A 5K on deck for March and a 10K bridge run coming in October, I have my work cut out for me.  I went to the gym on Friday night for a run on the treadmill and did a 5k distance as a gauge for where I'm at.  My time was 46:36, not too bad considering I haven't run in over a week and I don't think I've logged a 5K distance in how long, but at least I know what I have to work with between now and March 20th.

So on to the weight.  I weighed in on Saturday morning at 231 pounds.  That's only a 3 pound gain over the holidays which was impressive, I thought I'd be much worse than that.  But I'm recommitting.  It's 2011 which means it's time to get serious.  This week I'm focusing on re-teaching.  I've been on a weight-loss journey for so long that it's kind of been the same-shit-different-day.  I'm going to recommit myself to this process for 2011 which means I have to re-educate myself about health and healthy eating.  This week I'm going to take time to re-acquaint myself with healthy foods and healthy snacks.  My biggest problem is when I get home from school.  Once I walk in that door I'm instantly ravenous and once I start snacking I can't stop, so I'm going to find a healthy snack to eat when I get home that won't completely derail my plans.

What does this all mean?  Well, by the end of 2011 (51 weeks away) I want to be under 200 pounds.  As much as the NIH says I should be 170 (I'm 5'10"), I feel like that's too low for a goal weight so I'm aiming for 190 and then I'm going to decide from there based on how I feel whether I want to try and get to a lower weight of I'm comfortable staying there.

That's my plan for this week, what is yours?