Six weeks ago when we moved from Goose Creek to Johns Island I determined that I would take advantage of having a safe place to walk and get more exercise. My goal was and still is to lose a minimum of 1 lb per week. As of today I have lost 5 lbs and while I have not kept my goal of 1 lb pe week I am going to be happy about the weight loss. I have discovered that as I increase my exercise levels the better I feel and I have more energy. I am also finding that the increased activity has helped me to manage stress during the week as well. As the hashtag in Twitter #backontrack suggests I am “back on track” with my health related goals and seeing some small but marked improvements. Every day I have a choice to “start over”. Every day I have to choose to make healthy choices when it comes to my body. I can eat garbage and not do those things that I know I need to do or I can educate myself about the things I do need to do and DO IT. You know the saying, “JUST DO IT!!!!”
One of the things I have been doing is going to www.calorie-count.com and logging all of my calories each day. Every time I eat a meal or snack I try to remember to go there and log what I am eating. If I forget to do it one day I go back and think about what I ate and add it to the list for the previous day. I also log my exercise and weight there as well. Keeping track of all my calories makes me aware of exactly what I am putting in my mouth and it keeps me from eating emotionally. I read the other day that my mindset about eating should not be that of entertainment but rather to think of eating as using food as fuel. I am eating because I am hungry and I am eating the right things so that I can give my body the fuels it needs to burn calories. One of the pitfalls of eating because it is entertaining is that I get into the habit of thinking “I am sitting in front of the TV so I must have a snack”.
I have found that it is too easy to use eating as a way to make me feel better when I find myself suffering from situational depression. I might be upset about this or that or a circumstance out of my control so I will go rummage around in the refrigerator and look for something to eat that I “like”. When I am doing this I am redirecting my attention away from that thing that has me depressed or angry and I am focusing on food instead. The only problem with emotional eating is that I am doing myself a disservice by packing in the calories and pounds when I do this. I am happy to say that my wife Katy has hopped on the #backontrack band wagon with me and she has the same goal as I do, to lose weight and be more healthy. I think that she realizes that I am serious about “JUST DO IT” and that her being a partner with me will give me the added encouragement that I need to keep on keeping on. We can encourage on another and have the same goals. There is nothing like having an accountability partner that can help you stay on track.
One of the struggles with losing weight is to change how I think about eating but also to change what I eat. One of the low country bloggers mentioned to me in a comment on my blog that we should not have junk food in the house. If you do not have it you will not eat it. There is a lot of wisdom in that thought process and thanks to our budget being as lean as it is we have not had a problem with having a bunch of junk around the house. We have found some low calorie ice cream that we like so we get some of that from time to time to share. We have been eating more salad and baked chicken and boiled eggs as well. I know that we need to get better about drinking more water. We have been drinking tea with splenda and diet Dr Pepper. Katy has actually slacked off of drinking regular Coke and I am proud of her choice to sacrifice the sugar and calories that comes with drinking that.
My goal this week is to walk each day for at least an hour and to eat less than 2200 calories per day. Thus far I am averaging around 1850 calories per day and I am burning somewhere around 450 to 650 calories with exercise. Hopefully if I can keep this up and not let anything discourage me from this then I can stay #backontrack with the rest of you good folks out there that are doing the same thing. We will only be better off and healthier because of good choices.
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
chiefpropellerhead@comcast.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment