February in Review

Weight lost in last 30 days: 7 lbs
Inches lost since last week: 1

I feel pretty good about this month's progress.  I did push my 1st goal back a few weeks though.  After looking at my progress this month I realized 4 weeks to lose another 16 pounds may be a little too much.  I want to make sure what I'm burning is fat and not water or muscle.  So my new goal of being 199 is set for April 27. 

Challenges this month? You bet.  Family visited, I pulled a neck muscle last week, etc.  Life happened!  But I made an interesting observation recently.  I've realized how much "mindless eating" I do.  A bite of Grayson's leftover breakfast here, one Girl Scout cookie there, a few spoonfuls of leftovers as I'm packing them away.  It all adds up, no doubt about it.  As for the Girls Scout cookies.....we never should have even OPENED THE DOOR when they came by.  I'd forgotten all about our order till they showed up last week.  Looking back,  I probably should have just taken them to a homeless shelter or something.  Still, they sit on our credenza. I almost feel like I'm being tested or something.  How long can we ration them out?  How long can I live in the same house with such a sugar-filled, insulin-spiking temptation before I cave in?

I just looked over my food journal app on my phone and did the math.  I failed the test.

Granted, I would have failed MUCH worse if I wasn't attempting to get healthy.  It is quite possible that all 6 boxes would probably be gone by now, between me and my husband.  So I'm wavering between feeling a little relieved and kind of proud of myself, to feeling like I still have no willpower and should have just thrown them in the garbage when those cute little kids left with our check.  I'm tired of mentally beating myself up over the least little slip.  In the past, it always lead to a binge and a lot of me feeling sorry for myself.  But I also want to teach myself that having these things near me doesn't mean I HAVE to eat them.  So I will most likely continue to leave them where they sit, and walk quickly past my credenza for fear that they will jump out of the box, aiming right for my mouth.

Now that February is ending, I'm planning out a few things I'd like to work on in March.  I definitely need to control the mindless eating more.  My idea is simple; I need to be aware of every second while I am handling food. And I need to make sure my water intake is adequate.  I starting tracking the amount of water I was drinking each day and came to the conclusion (duh) that I was probably dehydrated and my body thought it was hungry.  Since I've maintained a minimum of 8 glasses a day, when I do get hungry it's not an all-of-a-sudden, gonna-puke-if-I-don't-eat feeling like it was. And last but not least, I'd like to limit my carb intake in the afternoon / evenings.  Some advice from my trainer was to adopt a more Paleo-like diet, which does not use a lot of simple carbs like breads and pasta, but uses carbs from vegetables.  That will be another topic later I'm sure.

~D~