Confession

I was talking to a friend tonight at a baby shower, and she wanted to know what I was eating to lose weight. Well, today was a bad day! For some reason I was really tired all day today, and I always have a hard time staying away from treats when I'm tired (I've heard that it's self-medicating.) For breakfast, I had Kashi-Go-Lean Oatmeal and a glass of milk. After breakfast, I ran 2 miles at the gym before taking Claire to school. For my morning snack I had some banana-cream pie (made with sugar-free, fat-free pudding and cool-whip.) For lunch I had a slice of pizza and some carrots, then a tube of m&m minis and some graham crackers with frosting, marshmallows, and vanilla wafers, and half a twix bar for my afternoon snack. For dinner we had hotdogs and tator-tots, and at the shower I had a big, yummy slice of chocolate cake and lots of other snacks. So actually, this would be a pretty normal day until recently. I think a lot of my control has come from getting more rest at night, because then I'm not as hungry and don't crave the sugar as much. I've always been a treat-junkie, though, and rarely go a day without one or more sweets.

One time, I gave up sweets for 18 days, and without changing any other part of my diet except substituting different snacks for the treats, I lost five pounds. So, that tells you how bad I am normally. Anyway, no more secrets - if I have a bad day, I will take responsibility for it!

I really don't want to go back to counting calories, becuase I think I need to change some habits instead, so that when I do lose the weight, it's not because of a diet, but a lifestyle change that I can continue. (I have done calorie counting in the past, though, and it is a very effective way to lose weight.) Here is a great link from my friend Shauna for calculating your daily calorie needs:

http://www.ultraprevention.com/tools/calorie_intake.htm