Feed me Seymour…

Week one of going back to the basics is done.

I diligently logged all my food. I tracked all my work outs. I consciously decided whether to eat a snack based on a) hunger b) boredom c) had extra calories left over d) all of the above. It was a little harder than I anticipated but now that the week is over I am getting back into the swing of things…

One of the hardest transitions is the fact that I am hungry at times when I am not prepared to eat. We’d gotten into a nice routine of eating the usual meals with little to no snacking because of the content/amount of our food. Now it’s back to logging which is making me more conscious which in turn leads to measuring and smaller portions which of course leads to being hungry sooner than later.

A few times Meegan and I have taken long walks and not been prepared. Hunger striking mid-walk and nothing in my back pack to snack on because I’m used to eating just three times a day. We’re now retraining ourselves to have something to nosh on just in case we are feeling hungry to keep us from mindlessly buying something from a convenience store or coming home and stuffing our pie-holes with whatever is in reach of our hands.

The other hard part about going back to tracking is eating  just because there are extra calories at the end of the day. When I run, I run for long periods of time (okay maybe not all the time but I’m working back up to marathon training). Some days that means I have upwards to 2500 – 3000 calories I should be eating in a day. I eat Paleo. That means the foods I eat are lean meats and a shit ton of veggies. Take a look at my MFP diary and you’ll be hard to find any sort of boxed or “prepared” meal. No grains. No breads. No dairy. These things are higher in calorie even when consumed in limited amounts and I choose not to eat them for a variety of reasons. At the end of the day when I have a few hundred left over calories I seriously need to be conscious about hitting the “complete this entry” button. Immediately my brain says “hmmmm, gelato or some dark chocolate would easily take care of those extra calories you need to eat”. Instead I am having to commit that when the logging is done, the logging is DONE.

Using the My Fitness Pal app has been pretty helpful in logging and keeping track of everything. I needed to wear my HRM for a few activities to make sure that the workout calories burned were being logged accurately (and if you’re using MFP please note that the accuracy of what they think you burn and what you actually burn are way off). For me it’s about half of what they say (oh how I wish running for an hour would actually burn off 1400 calories instead of the usual 700).

So the first week is done.

The results?

Down 3 lbs.

This week’s official weigh in = 168.

We’re not sure how long we’re going to be logging/tracking food. The ten pounds that I’m trying to take off will come sooner (or maybe later) than the weight that Meegan is trying to take off. We’ll do this together for as long as we decide.

In other news:

Meegan and I are getting ready to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary this month. Totally off topic from weight loss it’s is so freaking amazing that one year has already gone by. We’ve picked a place close to home called the Stonehame Chalet. Time flies when you’re in love…