Overdrawn!!!

I've used the theory of calories in vs calories out for a while for my weight loss. I find the most sucessful way for me to lose (and maintain) weight is to treat it like my check book. I have a daily balance and I subtract how many calories I've eaten and how many calories I've burned thru exercise.

Just like and check and balance system, if it's not properly tracked, it gets out of balance... and the tendency is to over spend. How come when you don't balance your checkbook, you don't save more money... it always works the other way, doesn't it?

My weight loss is the same way. When I don't track it, I over spend (ie: over eat) and it gets out of whack.. and now I'm trying to balance the books again.

Meaning back to the daily use of Fitday.

It's not fun. No more so than balancing my checkbook is. But just as it's good for my financial health to balance the checkbook, balancing my diet and exercise is good for my overall health.

I'm fortunate to have been using Fitday for a while now.. so most of my eating habits are already logged, I just have to remember to add them.

While I've been keeping my proportions in check (mostly), my food choices haven't been great for a while... and the between meals snacking has increased. It shouldn't be too much of a change... and I've done this before... and I'll be doing it again. I know that I will always be fighting for a healthy weight. I'm not blessed with a great metabolism or a love for exercise. It will be a constant battle. Sometimes, that's the hardest part to wrap my brain around.

It's very easy to get all gung ho about a healthier life style, to make the changes and the sacrifice. The problem is maintaining that enthusiasm. When the plateaus hit or after it's been a daily struggle day in and day out for over 7 years.

Kudos to me for the success I've already acheived... but there are no laurels and there are no finish lines in this race. It's like the hampster on the wheel... you just keep going.

(oh, and the knee is feeling better, and I'll be doing Yourself!Fitness today for the first time since I hurt it... fingers crossed there will be no problems!)

#@$@#$%##

Ya, my actual swearing right now might be too intense for the average reader (unless of course you know me and know that I can swear like a truck driver with tourette's syndrome).

I've been really concentrating on my workouts. Keeping to a pretty regular schedule, making a hard effort, avoiding the scale (and not back to using FitDay... yet). The usual stuff for me.

I was all up for a Maya crush down (meaning a nice 1 hour cardio with with Yourself!Fitness), then disaster.

We're having some serious weather weirdness, and the rain has finally become an issue with my knee. Plus I spent most of yesterday standing at my cutting table.

I can't put any weight on my bum knee if it's bent. So things like standing up/sitting down/climbing stairs is extremely painful.

I am not happy. I've just been getting into a groove, feeling that the workouts had been part of my daily routine, I was building up my endurance (ya, I'm still &%$#@ sore). I feel this happens to me a lot. So I guess I'm doing something wrong. Not warming up enough, not stretching enough, working too hard too fast. Something. Or maybe I just have a crappy knee!

I'm hoping that I'll still be able to do the recumbant bike today. While it's a lot of knee movement, there's no weight on the bent knee... fingers crossed that I can at least do that. Then maybe I'll do some upper body weights or some ab work.

Ya An Other Year... and the struggles continue on

Over the last 6 months, I've let myself go. I haven't been focused on either my eating habits or my exercise. Result? A 12 lb weight gain.

I'm trying not to let it depress me, but it's that time of year. Winter looms long and dreary and sunshine seems to be at a minimum.

I've been working with Maya consistantly for the last week. I'm so freakin' sore it's not even funny. I still can't seem to completely make the commitment, especially with food. I'm already so uncomfortable with how sore I am, the idea of being hungry just isn't appealing. The ONLY way I lose weight is to workout "hard" 6 days a week for an hour and eat 1200 calories a day. That takes a considerable amount of willpower.

So I'll keep trying. I'll do my workouts. Try to workout hard and keep an eye on my calories.

I think part of the struggle is that I lack a support structure. Weight loss/exercise is hard. It's easy to become competitive with it, so it's hard to find the right kind of support. Matt's always been very good, but he's so focused on his own and doesn't want to "judge" me that he's not always the best motivation. The online groups can be a little too "this is how you must do it", offering more advice than support.

So I'll struggle along on my own. Ultimately I'm the one responsible anyway and I have to do it for me and for my reasons and in my own way.