I'm back in the land of the living dead a.k.a. my job. I took a few days off to spend time with my Miaouw, in town from California for a week. For those who don't know me (and even for some who do), this is my infernally cute nickname for my boyfriend who will be moving to Toronto in May to be with me and Lola, in that order.Anyway. As many of you may know, it's not easy staying on track when you are sharing your life with someone else. Actually, that is not always true. Sometimes having someone else around can actually be helpful, in terms of motivation and support. As a binge eater, my most destructive behaviour happens in secret. (The Miaouw calls this "secret eating", and I love how he takes this thing that I feel total shame and self-loathing over and sort of demystifies and almost trivializes it, just insofar as my perception of it as something big and serious and impossible to conquer. It's not a secret anymore.)
The flip side, though, is that, like the song says, we're here for a good time, not a long time and there's an urge to make the most of our visits by just indulging in everything fun and delicious and happy-making while we're together, including and especially eating our faces off and chasing it with beers and silliness. Healthy routines get put on hold, and once you've cast them aside, it can be hard to resume them.
Well, this visit I think I did a damn fine job of toeing the line. I kept both of my appointments with my trainer, one of which was on Valentine's Day, and also got the Miaouw to join me for half an hour in the exercise room on Monday night while I did a two mile run (he cycled 6 k and suffered the dreaded bicycle butt for his trouble). I also cooked for us quite a bit, and stuck with my very healthy veggie stirfries. We did eat out a couple times, and one of those times I had a roasted vegetable sandwich with a side order of fries WHICH I THOROUGHLY AND COMPLETELY ENJOYED, to the extent I wanted to finish it off with some sort of extravagant dessert (indulgence is a slippery slope, my friends) but I was awesome and kept myself in check.
Anyway, I'm planning on doing a run on the treadmill tonight, followed by an indulgence of another sort (cheeseball Grey's Anatomy -- it's February sweeps, yo! Faye Dunaway is gonna be on! Cut me some slack!) and then sticking with the exercise for the rest of the week.
I'm feeling pretty damn good about myself these days.
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You should feel good about yourself! and about an occasional treat, it's certainly alright to indulge every once in a while, just don't make a habit of it. check out your discretionary calorie allowance. for example, to maintain your weight you need 2200 calories/day. but it's likely you can fulfill your nutrient needs in 1800 calories/day. as someone who wants to lose weight, you can omit the 400 calories you have left over, but when the Miaouw is there, you can occasionally (key word) use that 400 to indulge. it calls for calorie counting (clearly), but may be worth it sometimes.
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You should be feeling pretty darn good about yourself. You rock!
ReplyDeleteOh, this is an awesome post! You DO rock! Well done!
ReplyDeleteI know exactly that slippery slope, the difficulty in resuming after casting aside (talk to me about EVERY holiday season and the several months after...gah!)
I am thinking the same thing applies to me except my Bucketman eats better than I do and walks a thousand miles a day with his dog so I lose weight when I'm with him, and he gains weight when he's here! Heh. So, I'm looking at in TWO WEEKS when he'll be here again, birthday bashin' too, and going to use this inspiration to stay on track...for me it'll really be work to GET OUT OF BED in the morning to work out before work.
The temptation will be to lie in bed as long as possible and hurry to work that week. But that difficulty in resuming applies to regular exercise too.
Hey friends! Thanks for being such an awesome cheering section. Gulp.
ReplyDeleteTrish, thanks for your comments and reassurance. For sure, the key to any lasting healthy diet and attitude is moderation and balance. I don't do well when I feel completely restricted; I get rebellious.
Interesting you mention discretionary calorie allowance (is this something that has come up in your nutrition class?) I subscribe to Prevention.com's e-newsletter (it is almost exclusively devoted to weight loss tips and tricks, which, while helpful, feels kinda skeevy in terms of making money off the weight loss industry, exploiting women's fear and anxiety about body image, and slapping a label like "prevention" on it to justify it as a health thing as opposed to a vanity thing... anyway...)
A couple days ago there was a link to an application on their site that calculates a person's daily calorie allowance based on age, gender, height, weight and activity level. Sure enough, mine came in at about 2200. I usually aim for between 1200-1400 calories a day when I'm trying to lose weight.
taar, thanks for saying so. You know I love and need to hear it. In case you do too, and even if you don't: you are a superstar!
Dylan, wow, you do better when the Bucketman is around! Ha! Funny, and kinda awesome.
Re: getting out of bed to exercise, I don't know how you do it even when he's not there. Actually I used to get up and do a 10 minute abs video every morning, but I have not been able to make myself do that for years. I haaaaate getting out of bed in the morning, especially in the winter, especially if it's to exercise. Kudos to you, doll. Although I guess we all just use whatever routine works best for us.
yeah, it's from my class. you are the "practical application" that makes all this reading make sense!
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