Day 3

Hey Shane...

I didn't really mention the program because I'm beyond thinking there's a magic pill. That there's one program that's going to 'make it all happen when everything else has failed'. One program may make getting fit a little 'faster' or one might be less complex then another, but in the end none 0f them do anything if I don't stick to it.

I've also found that the 'shelf-life' for any program (even if it's working) for me is about 18 weeks. So my focus right now is a nutritionally and scientifically sound program and follow it for a set period of time. The program I am using right now is "Afterburn" by Alwyn Casgrove. http://www.afterburntraining.com/

Is it 'magical'? no Does it have some sound principals? yes

After two days though I have figured out that tracking my food so closely (down to the micronutriants) was really stressing me out. Although I have a lot more time on my hands then I used to, I don't have a LOT of time and spending so much time out of my day thinking about food does me no good what so ever. So, I've modified my food plan a bit. Let's see if I can explain my stratagy.

I'm still working toward my 1450 calories a day 5 meals a day
that gives me 290 calories per meal
What I don't want to stress about is the micronutriants, but still want to make sure I'm getting enough protien and I'm keeping my fat intake to a moderate level. So I've taken some of the concepts of BFL and applied them...sorta :)

In my mind I've placed 'most' foods into a catagory: Protien, Carb or Fat

Bread - Carb
Fruit - Carb

Chicken - Protien

etc

Then I made an 'executive' decision that 60% of my calories should come from a 'protien' and 40% from a carb. So - when I plan a meal I pick a protien and eat about 175 calories of it, and pick a carb and eat 115 calories of it. "But what about fats?" you say. Well, as long as between the two of them, they don't have more then 6 grams of fat.. I'm good.

As for the 'types' of foods I eat. I'm not grabbing 115 calories worth of chocolate chip cookies and calling it a 'carb'. I know better then to delude myself that way. I try to keep my selections to whole grains, raw fruits and pleanty of veggies. For this I try to go back to the LL program. Eating 'unprocced' (as in not from a package) foods as much as possable, avoiding 'fast foods', Eating one servinging of fresh fruit a day, eating at least four cups of veggies and at least three different 'kinds' a day.

As long as I continue to lose weight this way, I'll continue to eat this way. I'll let you know when I have to modify it.

As for the mental (and most important) side of things. Honestly, I'm still struggling. By the end of the day I feel exhausted from telling myself "No, you can't have that!". Maybe the first thing I need to do is figure out what I'm going to tell myself "You can't have that" may be half the issue. But still, having to say "No" (what feels like) hundreds of times a day really wears me out. When I think about it, I realize that it's just my 'adictive voice', my 'brat' my 'feast beast' that's talking. I also realize that the more I say 'no' and mean it, the less I'll have to listen to the little winer. I'm not going around hungry. I'm not depriving myself. I'll get through this, I know I will. For me, the first two weeks are usually the hardest - when I get through these, things will settle down, a lot.

As for excercise... I'm not too happy with myself there. When we got home last night it was 91 degrees. So I talked myself out of going for a run. After dinner, then going to the store to pick up lunch stuff, then cleaning the kitchen, making lunch etc. I sat down for a few minutes and before I knew it, it was midnight. *sigh*. So not only did I not run last night, but I missed my 4:00am wake up call and didn't make it to the gym this morning.. bleh. I thought that only having three 'gym' days a week would make things easier - but here I am in the first week, already missing workouts. The positive side is that with only three 'workouts' planned a week I can easily make one up. the only 'rule' is that I don't do RT on consecutive days. So tomorrow I'll do RT and push the last workout to Saturday.

Anyway - I'm hanging in there - still dropping the initial weight which is a nice way to start a program.

Thanks to those of you who are checking up on me!