June 15, 2016

Week 44 Weigh-in

I don't have a whole lot to say, so I'll just do a quick weigh-in and overview of this week.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had a MUCH better week as far as my eating goes. I kept my calories at a decent maintenance level (although, I still haven't figured out just what the right amount is for me to maintain--I'm going to continue to experiment). I ate around 2,100 per day, with two days being higher than that (around 3,000). My weight is down just slightly from last week.


There have been a few things this week that have been helpful in stopping the overeating. Eating whatever sounds good to me in the moment for each meal has been a major key this week. I've been much more satisfied with my meals, so I don't feel the need to go back for seconds or to snack when I'm not hungry in order find that satisfaction.

Another big help this week has been staying busy with writing running plans. I've actually found it really fun to work on, and the time just FLIES by when I'm writing up a plan. (I added a 10K plan and a base building plan on my Training Plans page.) I'm working on a half-marathon plan and a generic "stay in shape" sort of plan (without a race goal) right now. (It takes much longer than you might think--I've been keeping the 80/20 ratio of easy to moderate or hard running, so there is a lot of math to work out.)

Other goals:
I stopped wearing my Fitbit when I switched to Fat Secret instead of My Fitness Pal, so I don't know how many steps I've been getting. I found that the Fitbit doesn't motivate me to move more--I just wore it to keep track of steps--so I really didn't see the point in wearing it.

My binge-free days are adding up! I am at 316 days staying binge-free as of today. There have been several times where I felt very close to a binge, but I've still managed to hold on to the self-control before it gets out of hand.

As far as my goal of cooking a new recipe every week, I'm still going strong. Yesterday, I made a Kenyan Stew with ugali. I was sent a running memoir to read and review on the blog (I'll post it next month) and it's about a woman who traveled for a year and spent time running with people from several different running cultures. She includes some recipes in the book of things that she ate, and the Kenyans she ran with taught her to make stew with ugali. It was VERY simple, but so good! I'll post more about that on the book review.

I also started reading a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (Amazon affiliate link), after someone suggested it in a blog comment. It's SO inspiring to make you want to clean and organize. I started with my sock drawer about a week ago, which sounds very simple, but I can't believe what a difference it's made. It took me about an hour to organize it, but just seeing it nice and neat each morning actually makes my mood better.

This morning, I went to Lowe's and bought two long shelves for my closet (10 feet long each). I decided to fold Jerry's and my clothes and place them on shelves instead of hanging everything. Our closet is fairly big, but all of our clothes were crammed in there on hangers, and it just looked like a big mess. Again, I forgot to take a "before" picture--bummer!

I spent the morning hanging the shelves (I love using power tools!) and then taking ALL of my clothes off of the hangers and putting them into the closet neatly folded. It was definitely very time-consuming, but it was a great thing to do on a rainy day. I'm not totally finished (my back was killing me, so I'm going to finish it up tomorrow), but it already looks a million times better. I can't believe how much better everything fits when it's not on hangers. I kept just a small section for hanging up a few things--dresses and jackets.

Anyway, I've been doing what I can to stay busy all week, and it's worked out really well in helping my mindset get back to what it was when I felt like maintenance was pretty effortless. I'm really excited to be under my goal weight going into summer--I think this is the first time I've ever started summer under my goal weight! (In 2013, I was only a few pounds over.)

11 comments:

  1. Why the move away from My Fitness Pal? I use it, and like it, but am always open to better tools if they are out there.

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  2. You should use a TDEE calculator to get an idea of your maintence calories. TDEE being total daily energy expenditure. It takes into account how much you exercise. Scooby or IIFYM have popular ones. But with your exercise 2000 give or take 100 does sound about right.

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  3. I just got the tidying up book too!! I haven't started anything yet but plan to soon. I like to read a whole book before I start doing their suggestions. Im excited to try it.

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  4. I go in spurts wearing my fitbit. . . but if you participate in challenge with fitbit friends, I find it pretty motivating. When I'm in a challenge I want to win! I move!!!

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  5. Glad to see you've been doing good with food. It's too bad about the Fitbit. For me it is highly motivating, and I don't even have any friends on Fitbit; no one knows my step count but me. I've been wearing it for two years, with a 10k daily steps goal. I love when I go over by a lot, hehe.

    It's really made me aware of my activity level outside of exercise. If on a given day I do a short workout on the treadmill or the elliptical worth 5000 steps, I make it a point to still get over 10k by taking one or two walks. Same if I don't exercise at all. I will take a walk before breakfast, then at lunch, then after dinner. I've changed the settings of my One so it doesn't even display calories burned. I don't want to get caught up in that. Knowing my step count has made me develop a healthier lifestyle, and that's what I care about.

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  6. I loved Marie Kondo's book - I read it last summer, and my sock and underwear drawers are still nice and tidy :) It really doesn't take much longer to maintain once you're used to it. Although, we just downsized into a smaller home, so I might have to pull the book out again to get rid of more stuff, and re-organize!

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  7. I loved Kondo's book as well. It really have me a new perspective on possessions and focusing on keeping the things that bring joy.

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  8. I loved Kondo's book as well. It really have me a new perspective on possessions and focusing on keeping the things that bring joy.

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  9. I loved The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up! I was also so surprised by how much space I saved by folding clothes instead of hanging them.

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  10. I too am wondering why you switched to Fatscret. I'm currently looking for an online food journal and would love to know the reason for the switch.

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    Replies
    1. Well, both My Fitness Pal and Fat Secret are free apps, so I would suggest trying them both out and see what what YOU like better. But here is a post about why I made the switch: http://www.runsforcookies.com/2016/05/fat-secret.html

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