This article about the three-hour reset rule makes a lot of sense. I eat about every 3-4 hours… if I wait too long to eat, I get too hungry and end up eating more calories. I rarely do emotional eating anymore (that’s the pits, plus it doesn’t solve one damn thing) because I track every bite on My Fitness Pal. Tracking my food helps me to take out the emotional or judgmental aspect out of eating, and it becomes all about the numbers.
The numbers are fun for me; I’m always curious about those macros and micros. BUT I never buy desserts, processed foods or junk foods anymore. They’re not in the house at all. Ever. So if I eat too many calories, they’re still 100% healthy calories, with no or little added sugar.
Going out to eat is still my biggest struggle. My boyfriend is coming down soon to visit me for four days… I gotta get this figured out, because he’s going to want to go out on the town and that will definitely include drinking beer.
Sure, it’s preferable for me to go out to restaurants that offer meals for 500 calories or less and to stick to drinking water (sodium is still a big issue in any restaurant, but it’s the lesser of all the evils). And even if I do have a wonderful dessert or a glass of wine or beer with my meal, I don’t beat myself up about it afterwards. It’s just that the aftermath is harder. I tend to crave more foods and carbs after my fun day(s) out on the town.
Luckily, I don’t crave sweets (I’m no longer addicted to sugar), but I crave 100% whole wheat bread and whole grain oat cereal (with zero added sugar). I could just eat that oat cereal straight out of the box, like people mindlessly eat buttered popcorn or potato chips. I know, right? Lol!
So I end up white-knuckling it a bit for about a week after eating out—plus the slightest deviation from how I normally eat makes the scale creep up. It’s frustrating because then I have to re-lose the few pounds I had just lost prior to going out. My metabolism is slower than the average female’s, which also kinda sucks. Once I get myself back into the gym though, it gets my head on straight again.
Hell, I’d rather be a gym junkie than a junk food junkie anyway, right? 😃
Guess it’s time for the Big Reveal: I’ve lost 105 pounds so far, plus I’ve packed on a lot of muscle. I can feel my abs (can’t see them yet) and my quads are getting really strong. I upped my cardio to Level 11 on the stationary bike, Interval mode, for 35 minutes. My heart rate is great—it doesn’t usually go higher than 138 and it also comes down quickly. I’m probably in the best condition of my life at 62 (muscle definition-wise), and I was athletic as a kid (swimming, running, ballet, jazz dancing).
I had blood tests last week; I’ll find out the results this coming Wednesday. Fingers crossed that the results are even better than last December’s results, which were stellar.
My Healthy Life Choices 