*Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, nor am I in a position to give medical advice. This post is based solely on my experiences. Please consult with a doctor before embarking on a training or meal plan.
It's been a little over a month since my last post where I described my appointment with Mari-Etta Parrish, a board certified Registered Dietitian. Mari-Etta changed my life. She told me I'm eating too much; this way of life is not a punishment; & she gave me ideas on how to break my binge snack eating habit.
To refresh your memory, I was on a 2,000/day calorie goal. Mari-Etta wanted me to drop down to 1,400, but that terrified me, so she put me at 1,700 & told me to drop down to 1,400 when I was ready. I dropped down to 1,420 after my last triathlon & have been there for about 3 weeks now.
I'm happy to report that as of this week, I've lost 11 lbs. I've been trying to hit the 10 lb mark FOREVER. According to MyFitnessPal, I've logged in for 110 days in a row. So it's taken me about 3 months to lose 11 lbs, but I've only been at the correct calorie goal for the last 3 weeks. Also, as Mari-Etta said, my goal is Fabulous By Forty, so I'll get there. Slow & steady wins the race, right?
Dropping down to 1,420 calories a day has been hard. My two biggest struggles are snacks & eating out. I have about a 7 hour gap between lunch & dinner & I have trouble finding things to snack on during that time that won't put me over my calorie goal. My suggested solution is "fun water" & popcorn. It's actually working. I've been drinking these grapefruit Perrier things that I'm learning to love. I may try LaCroix water next.
The only way to lose weight is to curb eating out. Period. But... John & I love a Saturday night dinner date. I'm having a lot of trouble tracking what I eat at restaurants, mostly because we eat a lot of ethnic food that isn't in the MyFitnessPal database. I try to be smart about it, but there's no way I'm accurately tracking it.
Weekends are hard. I work-out a lot & I eat out a lot. Again, I try to be smart about it, but it's a work in progress. I think this is common, but I tend to weigh more on Sun-Mon-Tues & weigh the least Thurs-Fri. I just need to be careful not to fall into this cycle where I gain 1-2 lbs a weekend, lose it during the week, & then turn around & gain it again. John has the same concern, so that will help as a lot of my eating out involves him. We can decide to eat at home more &/or make sure we're making smart decisions when eating out.
Long term weight loss goal? Not sure. At the least, I'd like to lose 10 more lbs. And then maybe 10-20 more? When I see myself "Fabulous at Forty", I'm not sure what that looks like yet. Good thing I have 3 more years to figure it out.
This process isn't easy & I'm lucky to have friends around me who accept & encourage my behavior, like stopping to check MyFitnessPal before I order at restaurants. Special shout-out to my homegirl, Lana, who I work-out & train with, no shit, NINE TIMES a week (we have a triathlon next week). Lana keeps reminding me that my goal is fabulous by forty, not fabulous by Friday. It helps so much. Lana, thank you!
To be continued...
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