Practice Makes Perfect

Seven weeks of twelve weeks

Weight today: same

Total lost: 7 pound in 7 weeks

1/2 cup of oatmeal:150
1 tsp of sugar:15
1 tbl of powder creamer with Pumpkin Spice tea:30
2 tsp of sugar added:30
total:225

1 cup of Reeses Puffs cereal:160
1/3 cup of 1 % milk:33
Bomb Pop:40
total: 233
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running total: 458

2 large eggs:140
2 slices of Rotello bread:110
1 tsp of Smart Balance light butter:20
4 oz apple:64
1 1/2 tsp of caramel:35
total:369
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running total:827

small bites of greasy roll with frosting:75
chips:40
4 or 5 small bits of bread dipped in peanut butter:40
peanut butter:63
1 Twix fun sized bar:85
5 sheets of graham cracker:85
1 tbl of peanut butter:100
1 tbl of powder creamer in tea:30
2 tsp of sugar in tea:30
total:358
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running total:1,185

4 tbl of chocolate Malt-O-Meal: 172
2 tsp of sugar:30
1/4 cup of 1% milk:27
total: 229
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running total:1,513

1 cup of Reeses Puffs cereal:160
1/2 cup of 1% milk:55
3 graham crackers:50
2 tsp of peanut butter:66
total: 331
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running total: 2,073

Today's challenge: First day of no caffeine. Should be interesting. Also, just need to stay focused with calories. My tongue is feeling a little better.

Actual fitness: 60 minute bicep and back work-out, abdominals, 3 mile run.

Note on no sweet-n-low and no caffeine: Went running last night just after eating and didn't start feeling stomach upset until the last five minutes. Will be interesting to see how no caffeine goes this week...if my stomach is still upset.

Note on picture: My husband brought home this piece of cake the other day and we shared it last night. It actually comes from the bakery that makes my chocolate covered cream filled bismarks. So, of course I had to have some. A little under half of that looks like a 100 calories right?

Practice Makes Perfect?

When it comes to dieting and eating and working out...these words seem to ring true.

I mean sticking to a diet, losing all this weight and looking great don't happen by accident. Everthing thing I eat, every exercise I do and every goal I make is part of plan, part of a calculated effort toward making one goal a reality.

Weight loss...and looking and feeling as spectacular as possible.

When I think back to high school and college and the weight I was able to get down to and not diet, I am amazed. I just started working out, running, training for track or cross country and the weight just kind of slipped off.

I suppose because I'm older, things are different with my metabolism. But what I've really noticed that is different now is that everything is done according to a plan that I have created. I didn't have some grand scheme when I was younger. I think I just hoped and probably tried to eat less, but it was a stab in the dark.

And I know that in real life eating situations, long term weight loss happens when you incorporate a life style change that involves more than just counting every calorie. Like dealing with your emotions versus using food to deal with it. Stopping at full. Making fitness a part of your life.

All of these changes take time to happen. I personally think these are things that you have to work on day by day. I think that I will probably always be practicing eating right. And I also think my "practice" will probably involve me being aware in some way or another of what my calorie count is every day. That's probably because I'm the personality type that I would rather "know" where I'm at with the eating situation than not know. I don't think this is an all doom and gloom as far as always being so stringent. I think that as time goes on I will refine how I count calories. Maybe there is one day or one meal a week where I don't count calories. But for me, "winging it" only really worked when I was in training for track or cross country.

So, I'm taking baby steps, I'm practicing eating away from my diet, by going out to eat on the weekends and ordering food that will fit into my caloric criteria. I make the plan of what to eat ahead of time in accordance to what I've already eaten so far that day. It's been a lot of fun eating sub sandwiches this last weekend. Although, I'm still working out the best way to order things.

Eating out is just one thing I need to practice. I also need to practice overcoming my urge to snack on whatever is in the house. I know I'm not hungry, but I want to just feed myself something anyway. So, there are plenty of things to practice here.

What I think is great, is that even while I'm "practicing" and working on all my food weaknesses, I'm still losing weight.

Which just proves the point that you don't have to be perfect to begin the journey of looking and feeling as perfect as possible.

In fact, making mistakes and learning from them is part of the process of...perfection?