Most of the past week has been rough, but I somehow managed to stay at about 268 lbs. I learned a few key lessons from my early fitness attempts, and will adjust with the following goals for the coming week:
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1) Focus on feel, not calories.
My goal for a meal should be to reach the next meal and think, "ooh, yeah, I could go for some lunch!" If I have to actively fight the urge to eat for a couple of hours straight because I stayed at an artificially low calorie cap, I'm doing it wrong. I'm setting myself up to fail, because I won't always win those fights and I'll feel bad when I do.
Instead, I'll use those calorie counts as a general guide to keep in mind:
Breakfast: ~350
Lunch/Dinner: ~750
Snack #1: ~250
Snack #2: ~250
Dinner: ~750
But that FEEL - not feeling overly hungry before the next meal - is the goal. Be flexible and mindful.
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2) Stay hydrated.
I hardly drink any water. I think I literally had like two glasses of water over the course of the past week. Usually it's diet soda and diet iced tea.
In the past, I know water has helped me stay fresh and even less hungry, strangely enough. I'll dabble in water more, aiming to drink least one Camelbak (750 ml) per day.
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3) Clear the way for the next day.
One of the biggest hurdles to me eating at home (where much of my healthiest eating takes place) is having a gross place. A sink piled with dirty dishes from the week makes me want to spend zero time in the kitchen.
This also stops me from preparing food for the next day. I'm far more likely to just buy a candy bar from the vending machine as a snack than to scrape out a tupperware container to make tuna salad.
This week, focus on cleaning all the sink's dirty dishes each night and preparing my meals/snacks the night before, if the food'll last.
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4) Build an unintrusive foundation of exercise.
The biggest hurdle for exercise to me is feeling like I have to stop what I'm doing and disrupt my whole rhythm. Idk why rhythm matters to me so much, but my life is full of habits and inertia. Things that take me out of that are unlikely to last.
Trying a new pattern this week:
-Bike to and from work on three days: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless rain stops me.
-On those three days, do as many push-ups (knee push-ups to start) and planking seconds as I can do i in a single set.
That's it. Quick strength foundations, and a cardio workout that is only slightly longer than my non-biking commute.
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5) Only weigh in once.
Change for me comes out of the corner of my eye, when I'm not watching it. Weighing in each morning traps me in my head and actively hampers long-term thinking around what fitness truly means.
It gets me thinking, "how much can I get away with?" instead of "What does a healthy life look and feel like, and how do I start practicing that?"
This week, only weigh in once, Saturday or Sunday.
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In addition to these, I'll no longer try to post a daily food and exercise log. I'll just post one at the week's end.
Any "fitness"-tagged posts mid-week will be recipes I try or short bloggy things.
