Surprised by this week’s progress. I traveled out of town for a conference, so planning for meals was tough because I didn’t know what would be available. I did work out two of the three mornings of the conference as my hotel had a fantastic gym in the bottom of it. I also ended up walking nearly 15000 steps each day I was away. I think that helped stave off any potential weight gain I could have had. Given how I did eat while I was away, I was shocked it didn’t show up more on the scale this morning. I dreaded stepping on it this morning but knew I needed to hold myself accountable, so I put on my big kid pants, sucked it up and weighed.
While I was gone I did eat some things that I don’t normally eat (pasta, chocolate croissant, mac and cheese), and you know what? The world did not end, my clothes still fit, and I didn’t balloon up. Does this mean that I’ll do this more often? No, not at all. In fact, I was antsy to get home for a couple of reasons, one being that I missed being able to eat how I really needed to rather than eat based on what was available to me. Breakfasts were easier to manage than lunches or dinners while I was away–at least I could get scrambled egg whites and ham for breakfast, but lunches were tough as I ate at the Au Bon Pain in the convention center. I didn’t want to go out into the snow, and lunch time was limited so I had to eat what was available, which for me ended up being a cup and a half of soup and a breadstick each day. Not bad, and I stayed satisfied until dinnertime. The walking all over helped, and even though there was snow on the ground, I was glad I didn’t stay at the hotel directly across the street from the convention center so that I was forced to walk the block and a half there each day.
What I have learned this week is what maintenance level calorie intake will probably look like. With my current activity level, it will likely look like 1600-2000 calories daily, depending on the day. I’m slowly realizing that I will forever be an experiment and that I will always be a work in progress. I don’t know how I feel about this. I suppose I’m disappointed because I want so badly for this trying to lose weight to come to an end, but it doesn’t seem like it ever will so I guess I had better make peace with the fact that this will be an ongoing battle for me to fight. I’m also starting to re-evaluate goals, one of which will be to maintain my weight for the holidays. I simply don’t want to pressure myself to try and lose weight at a time of year where it may not even happen. So if I can maintain during the holidays, then I will call that a success. Maintenance seems a bit less scary now that I seem to have experienced a bit of what it will look like. So long as I stay active and eat reasonably well, I think it might not be terrible.
This week’s challenges are managing my stress (as always, it is reaching sky high levels), and prepping for being out of town all week next week in a town where food is front and center–New Orleans. I’ve got to get myself back on my workout schedule this week as well. I’ve been doing an upper body workout, but my legs are starting to suffer from lack of weight training workout since I can’t do anything my trainer wants me to do (thanks, torn meniscus!). I need to ask him what I should be doing for that I suppose, because I don’t want to lose the momentum I’ve built up and I know that the bike and elliptical are not enough. I also go back to the orthopedic surgeon this week to visit with him about the torn meniscus in my right knee. We will determine a course of action for treating it at that time. Surgery may be in my very near future, and I am NOT thrilled about that.
La Guerra de La Gorda 