You Are What You Eat

Sorry it's taken me two weeks to blog again! Work ramped up and it's been kind of crazy between billable project work and studying for a technical certification in my field.

It's a ridiculous thought, but the 4:45am wake up alarm doesn't seem as crazy any more. It's amazing how things can change in a few months. Sure, some days are worse than others but at the end of the day (start of the morning?) I know that I'm going to make it to Smyrna by 5:30. Ryan may be right to say you get used to the early rising – not that I'll ever particularly enjoy it.

My goals for the next month are focused around my diet because it seems I've gotten the consistent exercise moving in the right direction. The Regular Guys on the radio have a contest called the "Fat Guy 5000" going on right now. For the first week, contestants were not told to exercise at all but ate 6 meals a day of different shakes provided by the contest's nutrition sponsor. All of the guys were around 300 pounds and they lost 15-25 pounds in that week, without exercise, by focusing on their intake. I am not interested in something as extreme as only eating shakes because I don't think that's sustainable, but it did hit home about how important of a role diet plays in weight loss. I've been working out a ton but only have about 10 pounds of weight loss to show for it, and that's because I'm still eating poorly frequently enough that it negates the positive work I do at boot camp. Weekends, I'm looking at you. Last Friday morning, after eating decent but not great all week, I weighed in at 354 pounds. Monday morning, I was up to 358 from all the weekend beer and Super Bowl deliciousness. Because graphs and Microsoft Paint are fun, here's a rough sketch of my weight the last few month or so based on the bathroom scale readings when I hop on it (thanks Mom!)

My thoughts Monday through Thursday tend to wonder about "What if I didn't shoot myself in the foot every Friday and Saturday?" Then Friday afternoon comes around, I'm tired of the work week, and its party time. At least the general trend is downward and 10 pounds is still a good achievement for a month, but there is definitely lost opportunity in that graph.

I'm going to break my rule about making specific, measureable goals for a few days. I'm meeting with the Step It Up Nutritionist/Dietician, Bethany, tomorrow afternoon. Bethany is actually a fellow Boot Camper, so she feels my pain! We spoke briefly last week about what I wanted to get out of our meetings, so I'll repost them here:

• I have the most success eating well when there is structure in place. I've proven time and time again that I do not make sound dietary decisions when I have to make them on the fly. For example, cooking a healthy dinner with enough for leftovers at work the next day keeps me from going to the food court across the street. I think a schedule of meals for the week will do me a lot of good. I want to know that "Breakfast is A, morning snack is B, lunch is C, etc" so that way I'm not tempted to wing it.
  
• I have no idea how to create variety with healthy snacks. I couldn't count how many carrots I've eaten since December since they always seem to be the most accessible snack in my apartment. I'm waffling whether or not this coincides with or contradicts the first bullet, structure in my diet.
  
• Help me create specific goals that I can measure to keep myself in line.
  

I'll update again after we can hammer out a nutritional battle plan that I can follow. It probably won't start in earnest until next week because I'm heading to Boston Friday through Monday to see Sarah. Who worries about their diet on vacation?