January 14, 2010: :Day after hump day.

I think I need a personal organizer. They say often times amount of clutter correlates with amount of weight. Well I have a lot of clutter and I am having a hard time getting rid of it. If I could just get rid of things more easily! In the end I know all my junk will get moved and hopefully one day, after I'm settled in Texas, I'll sort through it. :)

Results

Week 11 Day 4
Weight: ---
Calories eaten: 1719
Calories burned: -237
Net calories: 1483
Exercise: 2 dog walks (50 min)
              1 mile run (12 min)

January 13, 2010: Hump Day

More cleaning and packing today. I got my work outs in and ate well. Controlling my diet is much easier when the boyfriend isn't around, then I only have to plan/eat for me.

Results

Week 11 Day 3
Weight: Packed scale away
Calories eaten: 1393
Calories burned:-237
Net calories: 1156
Exercise: 2 dog walks (50 min)
              1 mile run (12 min)

January 12, 2010: Keeping it going.

So it looks like I will keep up the challenge a little bit longer and see how it goes. I will be moving next week, so these next two weeks could be a bit crazy!

Today I spent the day getting some exercise in and scrubbing the kitchen. It was some good work and there's lots more to do!

Results

Week 11 Day 2
Weight: Don't feel like weighing myself
Calories eaten: 1701
Calories burned: -198
Net calories: 1503 (yay, good work)
Exercise: 2 dog walks (50 min)
              1 mile run (12 min)

January 12, 2010: Challenge completed!

So I miss labeled my weeks and thought I had one more to go, but it turns out I completed 10 weeks of the eating better/walking more challenge! I will take today to reflect on my progress.

Results

I think I did well, successful with eating/walking at least 80% of the time. In terms of 10 lbs in 10 weeks...well that didn't happen. My weight did fluctuate throughout the weeks, but from Week 1 Day 1 to Week 10 Day 7, my weight stayed exactly the same.

Things That Worked

• Walking the dog-she motivates me to keep going and I get my exercise in.
  

• Focusing on walking, I think walking is easy, so I'm more inclined to do it compared to running 5 miles which just seems overwhelming. 

• Writing down what I ate. The numbers don't lie. Using the Lose It iPhone app sent me weekly food/exercise summaries which made it clear why my weight wasn't moving.  
  
• Not having too high expectations. While it's good to tell yourself you can lose the weight, I also told myself that if I didn't lose the weight, it's no biggie. I can try again. One day I hope to find a system that works for me (besides working out for 6hrs a day and having mommy cook for me).
• Trying to do a little each day. Whether it be just walking for 5 more minutes than I had to, or just trying to get one walk in when time was tight. Also just trying to make one healthy food choice decision a day. It's hard to radically change the way you eat, but if I tell myself today I'll eat an apple instead of a golden graham treat, that's a step in the right direction.
• Write down/log what you eat immediately! You'll forget otherwise.
• Bloggins-it kept me accountable to keep up with it. Even if no one is/was reading this blog.
  

Things That Didn't Work

• Eating less than 1800 calories...I just love my desserts. I definitely need to work on this area!
  

• Starting in the winter without an indoor gym membership, this put a damper on some days exercising.

• Falling being on tracking my food, this would lead to over eating and I wasn't aware of it until after the fact.
• Not having a challenging enough exercise schedule. While I like the idea that the walking plan was doable, I think I need to put at least one exercise per week that will push me to my limits.
  

Future Tips

• I should pick a race to train for, this will give me the end goal of the race to include with the Eating Better/Exercising Challenge.

• I should plan my meals ahead of time, this will allow me to be stricter with what I eat, and hopefully lower my caloric in-take.
• I should write out my training and eating schedule clearly on a large calendar in plain sight. Maybe even putting notes up around the house. If I see it everwhere, it will be easier to keep on track!

Well that's all I have for now. Thanks for reading. If I come up with anything else useful/useless or tips, I'll update this post.

Until the next challenge! Adios!

January 11, 2010: Time to start packing.

I'm really unmotivated to start packing up my stuff. I don't really want to move, so that really makes it difficult to be happy or excited. I did get a good walk in today with the dog. The advantage of all the moving is it gives me an active -lots of moving around- day.

Results

Week 11 Day 1
Weight: Ugh!
Calories eaten: 2039
Calories burned: -123
Net calories: 1916
Exercise: 2 dog walks (50 min)

January 10, 2010: Visiting with my old roommate

Today I had brunch with my roommate from freshman year of undergrad. We lived together 10 years ago! It was great to catch up and I really enjoyed my french toast. I did a good job at watching what I ate.

Results

Week 10 Day 7 (only one week to go!)
Weight: No se.
Calories eaten: 1016
Calories burned: -37
Net calories: 979
Exercise: 1 dog walk (15 min)

January 9, 2010: First day back in Colorado

During the next few weeks I know I'll be doing a lot of moving while cleaning, packing and sorting. But I will also be trying to eat at all the Colorado restaurants that I'm going to miss. We'll see how it goes.

Results

Week 10 Day 6
Weight: Scale has been packed away. :)
Calories eaten: 2011
Calories burned: 0
Net calories: 2011
Exercise: Hectic day, no exercise