I got back on the wagon last Monday, and I'm surprised by how much has changed in just eight days.
The first two days back on the wagon were harder than I remember. I'm not new to dieting, but my meal plans have been pretty inconsistent for the past eight months or so. My grocery habits are excellent, but my fast food habits are every bit as unsustainable as my grocery habits are exemplary, so my daily calorie intake has been all over the map recently. But given that I'm eating vegetable-centered dishes at about 75% of my meals and my default grocery-buying settings are typically very healthy, I didn't expect it to be a huge adjustment. I expected the decision to start tracking calories again to be like a gentle course correction rather than a whiplash change.
Well.
Last Monday and Tuesday, the first two days back on a meal plan, I felt like I could have eaten a tree if it would have sat still long enough. Even though my plan generously calls for 1,890 calories/day, I was ravenously hungry and literally counting the minutes between meals. I ended up going about 200 calories over budget both days because I was so hungry it literally hurt.
Wednesday was easier. I was hungry, but not terribly.
Thursday was easier than that. I stopped counting the minutes between meals.
Today, Tuesday, is Day #9 since returning to CICO and I'm sitting here at 9pm with 265 calories left on my meal plan today, not at all hungry. This is the third day out of nine that I've been significantly under my calorie goal without really thinking about it. I'm down 5.8 pounds (I know it's water weight; I'm not expecting it to continue like that) and feeling surprisingly good. The most satisfying meal of the day was a whopping 152 calories (teriyaki chicken with mixed veggies over "noodles" -- 1/5 of a chicken breast, used a zero-calorie sweetener to make the teriyaki sauce instead of sugar, zucchini noodles) but the serving size was large enough to be a very satisfying dinner. I've re-calculated the calories three times because it seems like there's just no way a meal that filling was so "cheap."
I've also been doing a beginner-level exercise routine just to get back in the habit and I'm surprised by how quickly my body has adjusted to that, too. The first day, I was struggling and so flustered by how out-of-breath I got. Holding a plank for fifteen seconds felt like my body was going to collapse. I'm not doing a lot more in terms of final number of reps now, but I'm struggling a lot less on the way there and I don't hurt nearly as much afterward. I'm probably at the point where I can start adding reps without setting myself up for failure. In just over a week!
If you're at the beginning with me and you're struggling through it, look at what a difference just a few days can make. Stick with it just a little bit longer -- the first step is rough, but the adjustment period can be faster than you'd think. I believe in you <3
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2GdZxXX
No comments:
Post a Comment