First off, thanks Kris for the great suggestions and motivation yesterday. I will hit up Sports Authority for a hand held water bottle for sure.
I think I want a Polar HRM cause they work with the machines at LA Fitness and lots of friends love and recommend them.
I'm still going to shop for some pocketed running pants somewhere
Now...CALORIE TRACKING!
I know it works because I have witnessed my friend Corryn exercise and track her bootie off to the tune of 20 lbs (congrats girl!) in person and over on Still Chasing Skies. Her blog is insightful and not all about weight loss, but I want to give her credit for her awesomeness :)
I also know it works because when I log everything I eat all week I lose about 1 1/2 a week, sometimes a bit more if I exercise a lot.
But man, sometimes its so annoying, and not because I want to make a crappy choice and "get away with it" or because I want to eat more, but just because some things just seem to take forever to enter in, whether its a hand written log, or online, or on my phone.
Does anyone else get this frustration? Mostly the stuff that gets annoying are things like add as I go salads at the salad bar, stir fries, homemade tacos.....I get so frustrated that I just want to eat Lean Cuisines every day cause they are easy, but they are not as healthy as homemade stuff so that's not good!
Today I had a little salad from the salad bar:
spinach leaves
grape tomatoes
a scoop of egg crumbles, mostly whites
a sprinkle of bleu cheese crumbles
a few walnut halves
a small spoonful of sunflower seeds
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
I mean this is healthy, right? But gah, I don't have measuring things at the salad bar at work! I can't always make my lunch at home, my work has healthy options so I don't feel I have to...but boo tracking this sucks. Separate entries for each one, trying to figure out a good measurement.
This makes me think I always have to pack lunches at home so I can measure as I go, <whine> do I haaaaave tooooo? </whine>
I think this is also why I don't track on vacation, not because I'm eating crap or trying to hide or be off plan, its just that I'm on vacation I don't want to work....or be starting at my phone during a family meal at a restaraunt or running to a computer.
I think I might fit into the majority on this, I *do* track 99% of the time...that 1% being the few times a year I'm on vacation.
Am I being a baby about this?
4 comments:
First off, 99% of the time is excellent. Heck, anything over 80% is great!
Yes, it is frustrating. What I have found, though, is that it does get easier. I mean, let say you go to the salad bar once a week. My guess is you get roughly the same thing each time you are there. Yes, it takes a lot of effort to put in a salad--but once you've done it, its there!
I think you are doing a fabulous job! As I said 99% of the time is amazing!
I'm totally with you -- I struggle with tracking multi-layered foods. One trick I picked up at my old job was to count food groups. One serving of a given food group has an average number of calories, so you can estimate the number of calories in a meal by counting the food groups.
Using this tool helps me get through things like vacations and complicated meals without feeling like a slave to my tracker. I'm also super-comfortable estimating my calories. It's all about balance.
Give yourself a high-five for being consistent and brainstorming new ideas!
80/20 do your absolute best 80% of the time, and I mean give it your all, and the 20% of the time that you don't isnt such a bad thing... but honestly, you are making an excuse and because I think this is what you need and why I am where I am... I am calling you on it.
You want nuts on your salad at work, baggie some up at home and keep them in your desk. eggs pack well and are an easy calorie estimate per egg. Losing weight and eating right is a lifestyle choice and you have to make that choice. If it were easy everyone would do it all the time. If you want to see the results you have to DO IT.
Seriously! If you want to buy food from work and not have to log it all create "shortcuts" pack up a bag at the begining of the week little packs of cheese nuts eggs and crunches and make a shortcut in your tracker for the total nutritional info for that weeks mix. maybe call it week 1 mix. that way you can make that mix again in a few weeks and not have to enter it all again. Then you just grab that baggie and add it to the fresh veggies at work. So get the salad with the fresh spinach and maters and cukes and onions and whatever other veggies look good that day, but all the calorie laden things you have premeasured already.
Dressing gets easy to measure just get some of those condiment cups they have on the salad bars at most places and use them at home, measure different amounts of liquids into them until you are comfortable knowing how much a serving is.
Hope I am not being too frank with you, but seriously... I see *EXCUSE!!!!!* in big red flashing letters on this post babe... it isnt like I am saying weigh your sandwich thins :P However cheese and nuts and seeds and oil and not measuring leads to a very slippery slope! (
You can be a baby, you had your moment... now back on track babe! You can do this! (or you can not do it, and stay where you are... yeah... I didn't think that was what you wanted to do either)
Love you!!! You can do this!!!
Mindy - its so good to hear that friends are feeling the same way as I am, thank you for the support!
Leah - food groups, that's cool! Its a good shortcut when I need it! Definitely a tool for the other "1%" or so when I am feeling like a "tracker slave" heehee. Aww thanks for cheering me on *pat* *pat*
Kris - Thank you thank you for the tough love kick in the butt. I think everyone here agrees that tracking is frustrating and there are strategies when we can't give it our 100%, but you have some GREAT ideas to help me stay on track...pre-pack the foods that say DANGER, so on those days when I'm in a big hurry and I couldn't pre-pack my lunch, I still can grab the crunchies and the toppers that I could accidentally overdo at a salad bar, and do the leafy greens and veggies at the salad bar, cuz yeah, if I measuare lettuce or a cucumber incorrectly, its only a few calories, not 20-50 like it could be with cheese, dressing or nuts! When I do remember to pre-make my salad I measure the dressing and put it at the bottom of my tupperware container and put salad on top, it doesn't mess up the salad, its good til shaken! But I LOVE your idea of taking those little "to go" dressing cups they have and using them for myself on my lunches, sneaky sneaky! Love ya, too!
Post a Comment