Pop, Pop, Fizz, Fizz

This has been a bit of an odd week...

My drug of choice

Let me start with the good news.  Hell, the GREAT news!  On my weigh in this past Wednesday I am down FOUR pounds from last week!  I made some alterations to my diet/exercise last week and I'm thinking those 4 pounds are proof positive that I made a move in the direction.

One of the biggest changes that I made last week is that I cut down on drinking diet soda.  This has been the one thing that I've been holding onto and refusing to give up.  It wasn't until I realized just exactly how much I was spending on soda and how much sodium even a Diet Coke contains that I decided it might be wise to cut back a bit...  As we all know, salt and sodium causes us to retain water and I wondered if the extra sodium I was intaking through diet sodas was in fact hindering my weight loss.  I'm guessing the proof is in the pudding.  I still drink it, but not nearly close to the amount I was drinking before.

Last week I also started to increase the length of my runs.  Instead of doing a full loop in north Central Park (2 miles) I'm going 3/4 of the loop and then turning around and run home the same way I came (3 miles).  I'm getting in three huge hills this way and its definitely kicking my butt.

I'm also doing some more ab work again.  Mostly crunches and planks.  Ugh, my abs hate me.  I'm feeling stronger than ever before so again, I'm definitely thinking that even if this isn't really causing weight loss, its helping me get healthier and that's the goal.  Always have to keep my eyes on the goal.

The last major change that I made this week is that I am no longer logging my exercise in my food diary.  May seem like a weird decision, but here's my thinking behind it.  Before, I would not only log my calories in, but my calories out during the day.  With the food diary that I use, it automatically adjusts your calorie goal for the day to accommodate for the calories I burned.  Meaning, that according to them, I could then eat more and still stay within my calorie goal for the day.  This was a dangerous thing for me.  I didn't usually eat back all of the calories that I burned, but I did love to use that cushion as an excuse to eat more.  Even though according to the site I was still able to lost 1-2 pounds per week by eating back my calories I just think I was using it as a crutch way too much.  So, what I've done is actually increase the number of calories I'm eating each day (albeit it only slightly...  I'm at 1300 now.  Was at 1200 before.)  But, that's it.  I'm trying my hardest to not go above that number no matter what.  So far I've been able to stay pretty close.  So, by not logging my fitness I'm not as tempted to use my "extra" calories.  Make sense?

Now on to the odd part of my week...  My appetite has been huge and insatiable this week and I had to FIGHT through my run tonight.  Hell, I even walked a couple of times for a minute or so each time.  I haven't had to walk in a long time!  It was a bit discouraging.  I'm running my first official race this Sunday and it will be the longest I've ever run at one time: 4 miles.  I really hope that I don't have to walk during the run.  I know its not a horrible thing if I have to walk, but its my personal goal to be able to run the entire thing.  The massive appetite I'm hoping is stemming from an increased metabolism.  A girl can hope, right?  Who knows... All I know is that when I finish each meal I'm still hungry.  That hasn't been the case since the very beginning of my journey.  Hmmm...

I did start my new job this week (yay for having a paycheck again!  Woohoo!) and I am curious to see how this ends up affecting my weight on the scale next week.  The weather has, once again, been a factor in my work outs.  We didn't have a blizzard this week (shocker!) but we did have an ice storm, so having an inch of ice on the ground made running even that much more difficult.  I ran tonight for the first time since the Do Life 5K last Saturday, and even though the ice storm was two days ago I was still really scared I was going to bite it during the run and break my tail bone.  I just have to fight through my urge to be a sloth when I get home at the end of the day.  I need to keep up my progress, because I do still have a long way to go.  If I keep my eye on the prize, I'll get there.

Just like the tortoise that raced the hare, it's slow and steady that wins the race.  I'm definitely slow, but I'm staying pretty steady too.