Progress, I Think...

Five days in so far on my “Fifty by Forty” quest, and I’m clocking in at about 80% good choices, 20% Gardetto’s. Those little guys are a direct result of the fact that I love carbs and I’ve been a blitzed-out ball of stress and wildness with things going on both at work and at home, so then comfy, soothing (chewy OR crunchy) bread and cracker-type products were leaned on a little too heavily this week. Well, maybe not so much crackers – more like spaghetti. There were two nights of spaghetti. The main thing is that I tracked all of it, as I said I would. Every bite. What’s interesting is that my food vs. exercise balance put me at a calorie deficit every day which was great (though again, not focusing so much on calories), but I only had one day this week that I can say I actually had consistently good nutrition. A couple of Egg White Delights snuck in due to early mornings at work, and then my snacking wasn’t well thought-out, which resulted in things like eating a whole can of lite peaches in about 5.8 seconds. I think I may have freaked out my daughter a little bit one evening, eyeing her a little too intently after dinner as she ate two cookies. Only because they looked like two sweet, chocolate discs of Heaven disguised as mere shortbread. Eating on the fly, eating in the car, eating at my desk – the biggest pattern seems to be that I’m eating without thought, to my food or to my environment, because I’ve just been going, moving, doing, and generally just eating without mindfulness. I think that will be a great place for me to start next. Slowing myself down enough that I can be aware of my surroundings, my emotions and what’s going on so that I actually notice what I’m eating. If I hadn’t been tracking this week, all I would remember is the Gardetto’s. Curse the person who introduced me to Gardetto’s.

I had initially planned on posting links to my food diary to really amp up the accountability, but that would require me to know my way around the mystery that is formatting a blog. Nevermind that I’ve had my other blog since 2002 and I could have probably mastered the little things by now. I’ll get there. In the meantime, I have decided that I will post a weigh-in every Monday. Facebook knows where I started last week [cough! 200.4! cough! cough!], so I think it will be nice to see a little bit of victory happening. And even if I don’t see it, I am starting to feel it. I feel like I have a little more energy, which was helpful this week since I am completely drained mentally, and I generally have a better attitude. As much as I hate to admit it - and I have no scientific proof to back this up other than my own instinct (okay, and the articles I keep reading in Shape magazine) – I think it is due to the extreme lack of processed sugar this week. Other than a couple of 45-calorie popsicles and a fruit snack animal my little one politely “shared” with me from the depths of her car seat, I really had no sugar beyond fruit. I almost feel like I am betraying sugar by revealing this dark fact, but sugar makes me moody. It makes me strung out and a little spazzy. In that, “Ohhhh, now I see what you were talking about” way when you realize your mom was right when she was always lecturing you about too much sugar. As a kid I would have brushed my teeth with sugar, and who’s to say, if they ever make it into a toothpaste…

In the words of James Brown, “I feel good!”