Good morning!
Phew, I slept a lot better last night. I needed that. I felt like a frickin' zombie all day yesterday. I am much better today.
I did try to record my sleep with my new Fitbit, but something happened. I think I turned it off in my sleep, because it did record me sleeping around 8:15PM, but then switched to normal mode around 10:30PM. I fast fast asleep at this time, but I guess I must have done something in my sleep to switch it off. I hope this won't happen on a regular basis. I really like to register my sleep properly, as I so often have nights where I don't feel like my sleep is optimal.
Anyways, I logged it manually from 10:30PM and until 4:00AM when I woke up.
It was a great day yesterday. I did manage to pull off another Low Cal Day, so I am basically done with that for the whole week. Of course, I'll be jamming with Burnin' Live on Sunday, and that's a great opportunity to put in another one, consider it first one of next week.
It was relatively easy to do the Low Cal Day yesterday. I simply skipped breakfast, as I wasn't very hungry, had a light lunch and chicken breast with a delish salad for dinner. I had a few little 31 cal ice cream lollies as treats. I ended up having spent 614 calories. :)
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I was VERY active yesterday. I tested out my Fitbit Flex to see how accurate it is. I went for a one kilometer walk very early in the morning, before Wife woke up. I basically turned on Endomondo on my phone (GPS tracking exercise app), and walked one kilometer, while counting all the steps in my head. It turned out that I do 1378 steps for one kilometer. My old "stone age" step counter estimated 1350, and my new Fitbit says 1365. I'd say both are impressively accurate. I know there will always be inaccuracies, but this is extremely precise in my book.
When Wife woke up, we went for a walk to the post office to pick up a package, and I went to walk a little more. Later in the day, my walking buddy called and asked if I was up for a walk, so I went for another one.
Yesterday morning, I was worried if I was gonna be able to meet the goals that I had committed to on the Fitbit. I set myself up to move 8 kilometers, take 10000 steps (including all the little steps throughout the day), and burn 2800 calories.
Well, I did brilliantly well, and hit double the steps/distance and then some! I burned 3300 calories, according to the stats. Not bad!
The Fitbit comes with a great "Dashboard" website, where you can closely follow everything.
I can't embed the photo, as it would simply look way too small, but
here is a link to it, so you can see what it looks like, and the accomplishments of yesterday.
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Today's weigh-in says 78.1 kilos. That's 600 down from yesterday, and 200 from my lowest this time around. Not bad at all. I was hoping for a new low today, but it didn't happen. It's right around the corner, though. Fat% says 5.0 today, and that is usually an indicator that more weight drop is to come. I'll bet you that if I play my cards right and stay active throughout the day, I'll be there in the morning, and hopefully even further by Saturday morning. Let's do it!
It WILL be an active day today. First of all, I already feel how following the Fitbit stats motivates me. Out of the 16 kilometers that I walked yesterday according to Fitbit, Endomondo tells me that the 14 was ACTUAL walking, while the rest is just steps walking back and forth to the kitchen, shifting my feet while standing, etc. Hey, it all counts.
Supposedly, the Fitbit is pretty good at recognizing when you do actual walk, and when you're simply moving your hands around. It doesn't register typing or handwriting, but it registers walking and running. It even registers walking with a shopping cart or a baby stroller. I'm not sure how it does it, but it seems to be working. It's really impressive.
Now, if I can just avoid switching sleep mode off in the middle of the night. :)
I'm very surprised that his happens. The way to do it is to tap the wristband repeatedly for several seconds. It seems to me that this isn't something I'd be doing in the middle of the night. Maybe I simply woke up and wanted to double check that it was on, and then fell asleep forgetting all about it?
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So, today is a busy day, and a tough day.
There is no gym today, but that's probably good. My feet are hurting after yesterday's long walks.
But the real strain comes at 8:30 this morning. I have a VERY VERY hard meeting that I need to do. I'm glad I get help on this one. I have a meeting with a client, who needs to be told some very tough news, and I know she will be very upset. It breaks my heart to bring news like that, but it's part of the job. The part that sometimes makes it really really hard. If it wasn't for all the positive times I have there, I couldn't do it. Fortunately, days like these are rare.
I'm happy that the meeting is early, so I can get it done and overwith, and I am so thankful that I have a seasoned coworker with me on this one.
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After work, more work is up. I will be going straight to the gym to work the evening shift there. I'm glad I had a good night's sleep - it's a LONG day.
I'm looking forward to it, though, as always - I always get to talk to so many positive people, and I know this will totally make my day.
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Friday, I have ANOTHER tough interview, much like the one I have this morning. No wonder I feel a little stressed out. The one tomorrow is not as scary though. The two people's situations are completely different, and this one is not as hard on neither him or me.
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A good thing on a day like today, going straight from one job to the other, is that I can completely control my foods.
I had my breakfast (rye bread, eggs, ham), and will have leftover chicken and home made potato salad for lunch. Dinner will be a pita with ham and lettuce.
This will bring me to 875 calories, and there is plenty of room for whatever else might show up. I have an allowance of 2150 calories today, as madlog.dk (my food tracker) is still trying to push me to 77.9 kilos.
Today is cake day, and if I like, I should have PLENTY of calories I could spend on a piece. This is really more a question of whether I feel I can stop after one piece. If I feel safe, I might get one. If I don't - then I will stay way away from it.
These last days have been fairly easy when it comes to these challenges. Sure, they're always there, but I feel that I am continuously getting better and better at either just saying no, or just having a little. I really want to learn to handle this. It really bothers me that I don't feel 100% safe in this area.
I think this is where my real challenge has always been. I am one to finish it all. If there is more candy, I'll have more candy. If there is more food, I'll have more food. If there is more cake, I'll have more cake. "A little bit" was never enough.
This is probably the most difficult part of the journey - learning that just because there are more slices of cake on the tray doesn't mean that ANY of them are potential candidates for comsumption by me. One piece, that's it. That's all.
I wonder what it is that makes us like that? I know I have always been like that. I was a spoiled brat when I was little. My parents were reasonably well off, and we weren't missing anything. I was usually not told no to anything, and that was probably not really doing me a favor.
I think this is one of the problems today. Not being told no. Being told no will make you appreciate the little that you DO get. It's make you savor that piece of chocolate, or the little handful of candy, instead of putting you in the mindset that you need a FULL bag of candy, the larger the better.
I'm better at it though, but I can tell there is a long way to go, still.
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It's amazing how this journal really makes me work on the mental side of the whole weight loss journey. There are so many little things that I realize, so many things that gets fixed and/or cleared out of the way as I type. This is a great example. I never really think of the reasons why I was overweight. I never really think of WHY I still want to eat when I'm full. I just think of tools to stop it.
Obviously, the most efficient tool to stopping the over eating is to UNDERSTAND why I over eat. Why am I compensating.
I think one of the things in all this is that my parents were always busy. I think they had a guilty conscience when it came to my brother and I, never really having time for us. My parents ran two stores, and were always working. So they compensated by giving us everything we wanted. They never really made us work for it - they just wanted us to be happy. And happy we were, I believe. But I think I was still missing my parents, and food was the comfort instead. I was always the fat kid, so this seems to perfectly add up.
However, life is different now. My parents have passed away, and I know I don't need the crutch, that the over eating is. It's just a comfort, and it's one that I see that I have replaced with so many other things now, and one that I want to replace even more.
I love seeing that exercise is one of the things that I can use to get it out of the way. I love seeing that occupying myself with healthy things is the way to go.
My only thing now is that I can't get so busy that I start doing the same thing to Wife. I can't occupy myself so hard that I won't have time for her. It really helps that we're working in the same building, and that she's gonna come exercise with me. I love that we're doing things together, and that she's becoming more a part of all this.
She was surprised that some of her leg aches are already weening off, after just a few workouts. She's starting to see the point. I love that! I know she's very appreciative that I have quit one of the bands. I love that I now have gotten my Friday nights back, and that I'll be able to spend them with her. She IS the most important thing in my life.
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Today, I'm thankful for:
- Sleeping all night.
- Morning coffee. Needed. :)
- Wife. Wife. Wife.
- Getting help on my trouble case interview this morning.
- Getting the interview done first thing, so I can move on.
- Going to work the gym tonight. :)
Happy Thursday! Life is good!