dianaschnuth

As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to start being more diligent about my weekends. It’s really not that hard: take a scrap of paper and a pen along and write down everything I eat.

Saturday wasn’t all that bad. Lunch was Panera, and dinner was Applebee’s. Panera has their nutritional info online; Applebee’s was more of a guesstimate. I ended up at the low end of my recommended calorie range (by SparkPeople standards, between 1510 and 1860). Didn’t exercise, only drank six glasses of water. Still not horrible for a weekend.

Sunday was another story, and it was screwed by one poor decision: lunch at Red Lobster. See, Aaron had this idea that I could pay for lunch, since I had cash in my wallet leftover from an ATM run before a con back in January.* (I rarely use cash anymore.) So, since I was paying, I decided we were going all out.

I honestly didn’t make a very concerted effort to be good; I was kind of curious what kind of calories and carbs I’d end up eating if I just ate a nice lunch at Red Lobster. So, I did. And I ended up eating as many calories as I should have eaten in one whole day, from what I can tell. I tracked what I could; the piña colada dipping sauce was nearly impossible to track for nutritional info, as Red Lobster doesn’t publish theirs, either.

Dinner, while low-carb, was NOT low-cal. My half-pound Schnuth-made burger had more calories than the fried shrimp I had for lunch, and helped me rack up about 2700 calories today. Again, no exercise, but I did at least drink my eight glasses of water.

The lesson here, for me, is: 1.) always track my food on the weekends, because it makes me more aware of what I’m shoveling in; 2.) eat simple: just say no to the heavy sauces and appetizers; and 3.) look at the big picture. One day does not a failure make. I’ll get back to my normal, healthy groove tomorrow, and soon I’ll learn how to avoid losing my groove on the weekends.

Learning experience. Identifying issues. Planning solutions. I’ll see 165 lbs eventually, and it’ll be effin’ sweet. Hell, seeing 190 before our Japan vacation will be pretty effin’ sweet, for that matter.

*Turns out that I did not, in fact, have the fifty dollars cash on hand like I thought I did. I ended up paying with my debit card and leaving a hefty cash tip, instead. Still have a little cash in the wallet, which is good for emergencies, I suppose.

I allowed myself one week to keep eating as I had been, instead of jumping back into weight-loss mode right away. Figured it might be better on me both physically and mentally, being that my body was still pumped full of pregnancy hormones. This past week, though, I started purposefully increasing my activity level and tracking my food intake.

Monday: 30 min walk + PUSH DVD #2, Session #1
Tuesday: 30 min walk + 15 minutes of jogging on a trampoline (rebounding)
Wednesday: 30 min walk + PUSH DVD #2, Session #1
Thursday: 30 min walk + 10 minutes of DDR Supernova, workout mode (60 calories burned)
Friday: 30 min walk

I signed up for an account on SparkPeople, mainly because a.) I’d been tracking my food intake on their BabyFit website, and b.) I had previously been tracking my food using Diet Organizer on my PDA, but my PDA battery had died. I only recently replaced said battery, after I already got in the SparkPeople habit.

I’m planning to give my impressions of SparkPeople on an upcoming podcast, but I’ll mention here that I like it overall. It touts the “Spark Diet,” which is mainly just Eat Right And Exercise, but it’s really the tracking that does it. Plus, there are “trophies” members can achieve by earning SparkPoints online. SparkPoints can be had by entering food eaten, entering exercises done, tracking goals, reading articles, reading e-mails, logging in, and basically just surfing around the site. It’s an ingenious idea to generate return traffic, and to keep people entering their info daily.

My weight hasn’t changed this week; I’m still at 201.5 lbs. I’m OK with that, though — at least I’ve lost and kept off the few pounds I put on in those two months of pregnancy. Now I have the chance to lose at least ten more pounds before we try again. The healthier I am, the better… although going through the medical game of 20 Questions at the hospital last month made me realize that my only major health issue IS my weight. Apart from that, I’m good to go. No heart disease, allergies, high blood pressure, any of that. So, count me lucky, I suppose.

Next week, I plan to measure myself and compare to my last measurements from September (if I can find them… I think I inadvertently threw away the sheet I’d recorded them on, thinking they were also in my PDA).

Here we go, on another fun weight-loss adventure. The way I figure, I should be able to jump in where I left off in the Fall, and keep on losing half a pound a week, if not more. If I can do that, I can lose ten pounds by the time we leave for our trip to Japan (during which I may end up gaining it all back). 🙂