Today's Thoughts
Something I've been doing at the gym is trying to think positive thoughts. I really helps out. I'll tell myself "I can lose weight. I can get healthy. I can exercise vigorously. etc." over and over and over. It keeps me VERY motivated.
Snacks: grapes, crackers, sundae, butterfinger blizzard (I feel bad, but it tasted so good), popcorn, chile, pickle juice.
Beverages: 1 bottle of water, 1 bottle of sugar-free lemonade
Dinner: Potato salad + lettuce
Exercise:
None...I did something to my shoulder last night at the gym. Weird thing is that I was walking! You'd expect maybe I'd damage my leg, but my arm? I have no idea what happened but it feels like I pulled a muscle or something....
Today's Thoughts
Stress makes me eat. I've been very stressed out today and eating non-stop...
I ate *a lot* today and now I'm pissed. But, I felt like I couldn't stop. Since I woke up to about an hour ago, I just kept on craving more and more foods. I was eating everything in sight.
Today's Thoughts
It has become very apparent that my weak periods are Saturday and Sundays, with particular emphasis on Sunday. For some reason, I get depressed or very anxious at the end of the weekend and I want to binge all day. This happens to me quite often and I'm not sure how to stop it or how I'd feel if I didn't binge. When I eat a lot, it sort of relaxes me and so I'm not stressed out anymore.
Today is a very calm day, and I can already feel that I will be able to get back on track immediately. I just hope I didn't ruin last week's hard work in a matter of hours on Sunday. We'll find out soon enough....
***
Okay, I think I may also be expecting too much. Even though I don't admitted quite often, I desire to lose more than 2-3lbs in a week. I know this is not realistic and not healthy, but I just want to lose ALL the weight in a week, basically...
I really need to realize that this is NOT going to happen.
I ate *a lot* today and now I'm pissed. But, I felt like I couldn't stop. Since I woke up to about an hour ago, I just kept on craving more and more foods. I was eating everything in sight.
I had an epiphany last night. And yes, it may sound simple or obvious, and maybe this was not exactly a revelation (as I had already had a similar suspicion before), but the point is that I realized what is causing me to gain weight and what is potentially sabotaging my current attempts to lose weight.
So what is doing this?
Weekends!
Yep, in short, as soon as Friday comes along, something happens to me and I end up feeling bored, stressed, and I don’t sleep well (sometimes too much, sometimes too little). The end result of all of this is unhealthy eating and binging!
Now, you'd think I would be upset, but I'm not. Why? Because now I know my weaknesses. In the past when people would ask me, when are you toughest periods? or when do you binge? or why do you overeat? etc. I would be like, "I have no clue."
Now, I know for a fact that I binge when I am bored and when I am stressed out. I am most bored and most stressed out on weekends. I am bored because I no longer have to work (my last day is Thursday) and so Friday I don't do a lot of activity, and then stressed (mostly on Sats and Sundays) because I am about to go back to work on Monday and I usually have a sense that I'm not going to have enough time to finish what I want to get done on my spare time. I put a lot of pressure on myself to get a lot of things done on the weekend. Then, I feel very overwhelmed and stressed.
To make things worse, once Friday comes, I ruin my biological clock by oversleeping. What happens is that I usually stay up real late on Thursday, knowing I don't work until Monday. Then come Friday, I wake up really late in the afternoon. Even though I sleep more, I feel more tired. Then, because I am tired, bored, and stressed, I immediately start to crave bad foods.
This is what happens to me EVERY weekend.
Now that I know my weak points, I can do something about it.
But like always, it is easier said than done.
Let me explain, last week I thought that my only weak point was Sundays. So, I told myself to do something about it, but I ended up doing nothing. This Sunday hit again, and even though it wasn't as bad as last time, I still ended up breaking my diet. The fact that the night before my brother had brought home a lot of sugary snacks didn't help.
What I need to do this week is devise an actual plan that I will write out or type out for the weekend. I also need to make sure that I am not bored come Friday and that I have something to do each day (Fri. Sat. Sun). In addition, I oversleep a lot; this probably makes me drowsy during the day and less prone to activity. This week, I have to make sure that I keep my same morning schedule that I have during the week on the weekend, this will mean waking up at 7:00am and not at 2:00pm!!
So, this is the exact plan, including my “do’s” and “don’ts”
1. DON’T stay up late on Thursday. No matter how much I want to, just don’t do it. This is what sets me up for failure. Since this Thursday will be hard for me, I will go buy a sleep aid. Now, I will only use this once because I don’t want to rely on a medicine to keep a routine.
2. DON’T wake up late on Friday. I should be able to wake up Friday morning instead of afternoon simply by going to sleep early on Thursday, but you never know. To make sure I wake up early, I will set up an alarm *and* tell one of my relatives to wake me up.
3. DO organize the weekends to avoid boredom and stress. This will include *mandatory* gym visits, reading, etc.
4. DO separate personal healthy snacks from the family snacks. This way, I can make a rule for myself. I can only eat snacks from my own section of the house. So, if I get the munchies on the weekend, I will binge on healthy snacks and not unhealthy ones.
Shopping List
1. Buy sleep aid for Thursday
2. Buy healthy snacks
I weighed myself yesterday and discovered that I had gained 2 lbs.
So, in 2 weeks I lost about 5 or 5.5 lbs. is that good or bad? I thought I would lose more. This week I plan to work harder and also incorporate free weights into my routine. Hopefully that will help me out.
