Adding Structure

For the past couple months I've been letting my body guide my hunger and haven't really counted calories too closely - I sort of mentally note what I've eaten and try to keep it below 2000 calories.  Much to my surprise, this approach has been quite successful!  Slowly but surely I've lost weight and for the most part I've felt pretty satisfied.  But the weight loss has been slow and I'm anxious to get into the next size down. 

A few weeks ago I decided to step up my workouts - with the triathlon approaching I don't have a moment to spare in my training.  Today I decided it was time to start formalizing my weight loss strategy as well - it could take me a couple years to get to my goal weight at this rate, and I'd like to make this triathlon as easy on myself as possible.  I'm not expecting to lose 50 pounds in 4 months, but it would be nice to take off at least 25-30. 

Starting tomorrow I'm going to start tracking my calories using Daily Plate on Livestrong.com.  I've used this website in the past and found that it's a fantastic tool for keeping track of calories, nutrients, weight and activity.  And it's FREE!  Rather than ball-parking about 2000 calories per day I'll count more closely and aim for about 1500-1800 depending on how much exercise I've gotten that day. Daily Plate gives you a daily target based on your current weight, goal weight, and time to goal.  You record your weight and as you lose weight your daily target goes down - but you get to eat more when you record your exercise!

I'll also start formalizing my weigh-ins.  Right now I weigh myself almost every day.  I know they say you're not supposed to do that, but it honestly works for me - I look forward to getting on the scale each morning and don't get discouraged if there's not a lot of downward movement.  However, I don't track my overall change in weight other than change against my starting point last October - and thus I don't have a good idea of how much I lose each week, and how my weight cycling relates to daily calorie intake and general nutrition.  So I've decided to 'officially' weigh in on Wednesdays and I'll post the updates here.

Check back this Wednesday for my first official weigh-in and a report on my first few nights with the Tempurpedic bed.