Thank goodness for small victories

With joining TriLaVie, I made a commitment to myself to be more active, meet new people, and set new goals for myself. Even though my plan was to join the team in June, I joined in March before I was truly ready to be back "on plan" .... but dammit I was going to make it a positive decision.

I amped up my exercise intensity and frequency and also dialed in my eating habits. This was a good decision and I was not looking back. You would think that the scale would cooperate and follow suit. But no. What did it do in response? Go up. Not one pound. Not two... try 3.2!!!

I didn't let it discourage me at first. I told myself it was muscle gain. Yeah not possible. I blamed it on water weight. After all, I had worked my muscles hard and they were probably healing. It was also that special time of the month, so I was probably retaining all sorts of fluid.

I hoped.

I hoped and waited. Each day I stepped on the scale and saw the same number staring back at me. Man! How is this possible! The entire three months that I hadn't been "on plan" I only gained 3.5 pounds from my lowest weight in this journey, which was on race day in December. For that, I have to thank my Bodybugg. If I haven't mentioned it lately, my Bodybugg is awesome. It's a constant reminder to move more and eat less. And, even if I haven't eaten perfectly or mindfully, I still know the secret number I need to hit to make it not turn into permanent baggage.

So back to this week. After four days, I was really getting discouraged. I was eating well! I was exercising! What else can I do?

Let me tell you... I was soooo close to losing it. Exercising a lot makes my normally tame appetite go absolutely berserk. There are some days that I just crave certain things and my subconscious won't let me forget it. There have been days when I decide to give in to one craving only to get halfway through and seriously consider making a second meal of something else I was also craving. Yeah, but I don't allow that. That would be ridiculous and wasteful.

Okay, maybe I did give in that once.

Well this morning was exactly what I needed. I had to get out of bed at 6:15am to get ready to run with my run club (not totally what I felt like doing on a Saturday morning), and I needed some good news. What did I find? The 3.2 unwelcome hangers-on had vanished as quickly as they came. Where did they go? Care I do not.

Thank goodness for small victories.

I'm bugged.

As I alluded to earlier, I recently went out and got myself a Bugg. No, not bed bugs or a bugaboo or even a VW Bug. I got a Bodybugg. I'm still not sure why they came up with that name, but I am finding that it can be a little big of a bugger.

I was looking into a couple of different tools that would help me manage calories to help me get back into shape and the BB was one of the products I researched online. It's basically a little device on an arm band that you wear daily to track how many calories you burn. There's a cool user interface online where you upload your BB data and also track the food you consume. That's where you learn your caloric balance.

It's a really simple equation: calories burned - calories ate = surplus or deficit.

Obviously you want a deficit each day (meaning you burned more than you ate) and next thing you know, you're getting in shape!

I also invested in the Digital Display that is a watch that syncs with the armband. It gives you real time updates on your calories burned, steps, and minutes of activity without having to upload via USB. It's really effective in motivating me to hit my targets each day. I'm on week 2 and am already down 10 lbs!