The Diet

QOTD: D: "Mom, why are you trying to lose weight?"  Me: *laughing* "so I can look good".  (yeah, I know, probably not the most politically correct answer). D: "are you sure it is not so that Dad can carry you around like they do in comics, movies, and on people's wedding days?"  Me: "yeah, pretty sure that is never going to happen."  D: "why not?"  Me: "because I am not that much shorter than your dad.  It works better if the guy is really tall and the girl is shorter."

I am a person that likes to finish things, to accomplish things.  Parenting, which is my full time job, does not allow for much finishing or accomplishment.  You are never done parenting and the problems never cease.

You can't check things off of a "wife" list either.  You have to work constantly at your relationship, not take things for granted.  You don't finish and accomplish your entire marriage with a weekend check list.

I have never really made an effort to lose weight before, I have never really had to. In the last 10 years when I started to feel like I was gaining a little, I would be pregnant by the next month and would be no longer concerned. 

Some combination of needing to finish something, control something and the fact that my 5 pound weight variation had slowly crept up 5 pounds over the last couple of years got me motivated to lose 10 pounds by my birthday in June. 

That will put me at what I consider to be a really healthy, really lean weight for me.

So I started tracking calories and exercise and playing the numbers game using a website- myfitnesspal.com.  And do you know what?  It works.  If I stay at or under my calorie allotment for the day I lose weight at the rate I have told the site that I want to lose at. 

It is pretty incredible, and because I like to enter numbers in charts and obsess over things it works for me. 

I have cleaned up my eating a lot and have been very consious of where my extra calories are coming from (leftover PB & J that the kids didn't eat- probably didn't need that).  I have stopped snacking while I cook and have started making sure that the calories I am consuming are actually things that I want to be eating and will fill me up.

I get 1285 calories a day if I don't exercise.  That is so that I will lose 2 pounds a week.  That is not very many calories, in case you were wondering.  That is enough for 3 small meals.  No calories from beverages, no desserts.  I can eat that many calories in one meal easily.  But I am not starving, I am just making better choices.

And then I exercise in order to get extra calories.  Running 5 miles gives me a lot of wiggle room and even allows for dessert! And running faster is even better.

Eating cleaner, running faster and losing weight- that is the name of the game right now!  I don't know if I will actually be down 10 by my birthday, but I think I will be close- all in time to gain it back on vacation!