Week Sixteen - Day Five: Weight Watchin'

BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 35 min.
TIME BACK: 35 min.
WEATHER: clear, -10C, 6km/hr wind there; clear, -3C (-7C with windchill), 11km/hr wind back.
WHAT I WORE: boots, work socks, fleece pants, turtleneck, fleece mid-layer, lobster gloves, balaclava
NOTES:
Uggghhhhh . . . My beautiful lovable readers, I hate to say it, but if I want to hit my target weight by the end of the summer, I'm going to have to step up my nutrition regime. I can bike my 16 km round-trip commute every day through rain, snow, and -30C weather, but no matter what my exercise regiment is I'll continue being a chubber if I don't change my eating patterns. I just want to eat whatever I want, whenever I want - is that so much to ask?? Apparently . . . yes.

I've been using the website The Daily Burn to track the calories I'm burning with my bike commuting efforts and - most importantly - to track my nutritional intake. This website has been fantastic because it allows me to fairly accurately track how much I'm eating and how my food breaks down into its nutritional composition. For someone whose only successful weight-loss efforts have come from calorie-counting, this website is a God-send!

The bad news is that as much as I aim to stay within a caloric range that will lead to my eventual weight loss, doing the straight-up calorie-counting thing means that it doesn't matter if my calories are made up of a couple donuts or a well-balanced meal, it only matters that whatever I eat falls within the caloric range I'm aiming for. Normally this isn't a big deal - I usually eat fairly well, and calorie counting allows me to have a handful of chocolates during our team meeting at work or go out for a celebratory meal with friends without feeling remotely guilty. As long as I count the food, I'm allowed to eat it! No exceptions!

However, lately I haven't been following my usual pattern of eating fairly well and indulging occasionally. Instead, over the past week I have been eating Christmas chocolates and Lindt truffles and donuts at work (damn you, work, for exposing me to so much temptation!!). As much as I've been counting these treats, I can't imagine it's possible for me to continue losing weight when more than a third of the calories I ate one day this week were made up of donuts. These days, I feel as though I'm not necessarily overeating, but I'm certainly not eating well, and that can't be a good thing.

Perhaps I just need to chalk it up to "tis the season!", but I don't want to excuse myself from eating like a human being for two weeks straight just because the holidays are upon us. I don't want to gain 10 lbs in the second half of December after working so hard over the past three months to lose nearly 25 lbs. I don't want to face the beginning of January feeling malnourished because I've been eating nothing but sugar and fat! But then again, dietary restriction and I DO NOT get along. We've had a violent history, me and dietary restriction, and we're just no good for each other. So I'm not willing to say, "OK, Johnson, that's it - no more candy or baked goods!" Good luck with that, given all the Christmas parties still left to attend! But maybe a little more self-control is in order.