The Battle Has Begun

It’s a good thing this week is a cutback week (I am on a cycle of 3 weeks hard, 1 week easy, that I will adjust if need be around vacations and such, but try to stick with and this week is back to easy) because I’m already exhausted and having trouble getting up. Sunday I even went to bed a bit earlier than usual, but I could not get out of bed when my alarm went off on Monday, got to the gym about 15 minutes later than normal so only got 3 miles of my planned 4 and 25 minutes of strength (I’d really like to be doing 30-40). Today was going to be 6-8 and as the snooze was being hit, I thought 10 more minutes, I’ll just run 6 this morning…had an easy 6 tempo, but it’s still not quite what I would’ve liked, I had wanted 7…tomorrow is strength again, but I might go lighter and try to get 5 miles in before the longer run on Thursday (10-12), no running Saturday and won’t have time for much on Sunday.

Being up till 12 last night and again tonight is just going to kill me (leave the house at 6/6:30 and don't get home till 11:45 pm), then 10 tomorrow…I have no motivation to work today either, that tiredness, OK, note to self, no more of two closes during the week! My day job is much more important than B&N (even if I like the discounts) and being tired at B&N is not a good thing as then I’m crabby at the customers…lose/lose all around (particularly when you get stupid people).

So all that other stuff aside, the thing I really need to work on is how I have GOT to do something about my weight. I’m stagnant, and have been for a very long time. I want to go down 10 pounds, had wanted to be there by my birthday, and that’s kind of a big order now, but I’m really, really going to try to at least get rid of 5 before then. I’m already on a track to try to do it…but I really need to be faithful to a plan, it’s the crap that is getting me. I’ve been keeping track of my food intake on Fitday and I know I take in too much. I'm averaging close to 2200 calories, which probably just about breaks even (some days have been as high as 2500) with what I need to maintain life with my workouts. Although all the running I’ve been doing might be counter-inducive to losing weight, body demanding more fuel, me eating…but I need to take some notes out of TriGal’s fight and get myself into a better relationship with food. Not eating just cause I’m bored, something sounds good or whatever. It means giving up a lot of things too. I’ve already given up cake and candy for Lent and so far I’ve done good on that, didn’t even use the “free Sundays” rule the few times I’ve been wanting something sweet, but it didn’t cancel all sweets. Cookies have become the substitute for any cake or candy that I might consider eating, so I think it’s time to dump the cookies too. Along with pop, although I will say I only have one of those a week typically (last week there were two) so that’s not a problem area. Drinking, OK, beer could be something I could cut out, but it’s not a huge part of my diet…last weekend was one of the worst (other than vacation) in a long time when I had 4 on Friday night and 5 on Saturday night…so need to be more accountable on things like that. Drinking counters the running anyway right?

Hmm…so here it is, no more cake and candy (already done for Lent), no more cookies, avoid the blueberry muffin that I’ve been eyeing (but have managed to stay away from for breakfast the last week) cause that will set off another bad run. Chips too…unless they are baked or reduced fat in some way (like Sun Chips), no more chips until I’ve lost 5 pounds! When I want salty, I have healthy microwave popcorn. Hmm…what else can I deprive myself of…