Day 11
So I'm doing the "Special K Challenge" and making it a poing to eat a bowl of Special K for breakfast, the same for lunch, and then a "sensible" dinner. So far it's helping me to keep my calorie intake DOWN and logging all of my daily activities (including typing this blog entry for the day), I'm finding that I really am burning more than I am consuming, and I don't feel as guilty as I would normally feel for not working out every day that I want to.
This last week Meijer had Special K items on sale, so I bought the Blueberry and Chocolatey Delight cereals (I have about 6 boxes of regular and Red Berries stored with the other foods on the shelves in my basement), and a handful of Special K bars and their new Fruit Crisps (which taste a bit like having a PopTart). I also picked out "light" potato chips, and a couple of boxes of 100 Calorie snacks. The idea of having "healthy" options for things like that in the house are great, for someone like me who goes through snacking phases here and there. And yes, I do keep things lik ecelery on hand for celery and peanut butter as a snack. It's amazing to think of how many items we normally eat are so high in calories. I remember a guy I worked with at Old Navy once said that the he and his roommates would get these particular bagles at Panara Bread in the mornings before work. He said that they would get two a piece and that he himself had no problems consuming them both in one meal. The girl that would sell them to him however, did inform him one day that the calories in just ONE of the two bagels he was eating was basically your entire calorie base for the day. In other words, they were about 2000 calories each! Finding that out really made me think about what kinds of things out there I LOVE to eat and have that are going to have to be the special items I get to have a couple times a year instead of once a week!
Yesterday I almost gave up on counting my calories for the day. Sundays seem to be a day to not really watch what I'm eating as much, mainly because we go to my in-laws' house and my mother-in-law always makes such yummy foods! On the plus, there's always salad and I know that if I'm feeling really guilty about my calories for the week, I can always just go for salad and nothing else. Yesterday, however, it was not just eating the food for lunch, it was dinner being a sort of potluck at the church before our congregational meeting, and everyone bringing such yummy things to eat! I did only have a few sweets that would have been high in calories compared to the "dinner" items I ate, but I had to just guess on what I ate last night. I think that I was fair in figuring my dinner was close to 800 calories. But on the plus, with everything else I'd eating yesterday and with the activities I was able to log, I still had less calories consumed than burned! :-) I can't wait to weigh in later this week (I forgot about it this morning) and see if I've lost anything more...
Things to look forward to this week:
--Planning worship for Sunday's service,
--ZUMBA on Wednesday night,
--Weighing in on Thursday morning,
--Practice Thursday night,
--Moving around more things in the basement for a "workout zone" and a "kids play space!"
Hoping I can make all this happen this week, while still working out when I can, and snuggling my sick little kids...
Good luck this week!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget with the Special K challenge that you get to eat 2 snacks too.
I was browsing around on calorie count and got in a discussion about calories consumed vs. calories burned. In order to lose weight - you must have a difference of 500 calories every day to lose weight. So keep checking your burn meters....if I remember right you have a little over 2,000 as your calorie limit. If you actually consume 2,000 you must burn 2,500 calories every day to lose weight. The nutritionist said that you need to figure out how many calories you burn in a day without any exercise. Whatever that number is, subtract 500 and that is your intake limit. Our bodies burn calories just to stay alive so it's not just about adding in all the activities (like housework and laundry) cuz those are just activities. They don't burn the fat we consume which is what we want to get rid of! And while it is an activity, it's part of daily life and considered sedentary lifestyle. Which is why - for me - I'm at a 1300 calorie limit and JT is at 1800 (he's been given a 75 pound goal by November, 2010). A 2,000 calorie limit is not really for weight loss but for weight maintenance. It's suggested that women go to a 1500 calorie intake and do regular exercise (just walking) and they can lose 25-30 pounds in a year or less. The weight trainer says that finding even 15 minutes a day to do a workout is good for body, mind and soul. It doesn't have to be a long, hard workout. It would be discouraging if all our workouts had to be so long and so hard. We wouldn't do them.