The mind is the enemy

Status
Not open for further replies.
The Limoncello was quite tasty in the small quantity I had of it, but I wasn't sad I didn't have more. I wanted a beer quite badly with my chicken sandwich and spicy gazpacho last night, though. But I stayed strong!

Thanks, LaMa, although to be fair I'm probably only talking about the parts of my routine I'm proud of, haha. I should probably discuss my food habits a little more to give a fairer picture.

Sunday's food:
Taco meat omelette with mostly egg whites. Two clementines. One scoop of ice cream (eaten on a picnic table as all summer ice cream should be). Grilled chicken sandwich with avocado + spicy gazpacho. Handful of grapes. Two homemade cookies (made with coconut oil and peanuts, among other things). And a few elderflower drinks scattered in there, which are about 100 calories a piece.

I keep forgetting my grapes are in there, which is annoying because I LOVE grapes. So do our guinea pigs, which is good because that means we all get treats at the same time.
 
Oaks- Limoncello is scrumptious on a really hot day- well it sure was in Italy, which is where I first tasted it. Belated cheers to you & your continued success! You do keep making good choices & you will get to where you want to be. Sending a little of our Winter wonderland to cool you down, xo Cate
 
Thanks for the kind words, Cate!! I seem to go in phases.... I guess we all do that. Cheers to this phase lasting a while!

Monday's food:
Grape Nuts. Overnight oats + grapes. 100 calories worth of almonds. Grilled chicken sandwich with avocado + spicy gazpacho. More grapes. No treats!

Exercise included a very short and easy run. Mentally I wasn't into it, ended up running one slow mile away from home and then just walked back. I've got a group run scheduled for tomorrow.
 
That sandwich sounds lovely... and I haven´t had breakfast yet! Good job working out even though you weren´t really feeling it.
 
LaMa, I actually thought it was interesting that I initially wrote that my exercise "was a failed attempt at a run" before changing it to softer language. Would I ever tell someone else they failed when they were moving outdoors for two miles? Nope!
 
I find most of us are our own biggest critics( me included). I would not even consider being as harsh with anyone else, as I am with myself. It's good that you have that self awareness.


Via Tapatalk
 
Moving around outdoors in the heat for 2 miles is indeed a workout! I think on the days when it is really hard to get motivated, but we still do something, that we actually have as big a win as when we kill it. :D
 
Cate, relevant story from yesterday - there's a girl I work with who is a very strong runner but has trouble seeing herself as such. Yesterday she was planning a long run of 8 miles and she was so focused on doing the entire thing without stopping to walk. "But what if I stop to walk? Is that ok? Does the run still count?" She knows my running habits and knows very well that I stop to walk whenever I feel like it, whether it's a 2 mile run or a 9 mile run. Would she ever tell me that my runs don't count? Of course not! So I pointed that out to her and reminded her that running has no bylaws and she laughed at herself and I told her to get out there and run and be happy no matter what she did.

Jade, I agree, those mental wins are huge, regardless of what your physical capabilities are. Could I have run 5 miles? Sure. Could I have stayed in bed and slept another hour?* Would have been pretty darn easy. We have to recognize those wins just like we recognize any others.
 
Tuesday's food:
Granola bar. Turkey club wrap. Almonds. Banana. Grilled chicken with yellow rice. More grilled chicken with yellow rice.

Exercise: 4.5 mile run with a co-worker at an easy pace. She went back and forth on whether she was going to do the whole thing or stop at 3 and in the end was glad she stuck it out with me.

I wanted a snack so badly around 10 pm last night, so much so that G went to bed and I stayed up for a while afterwards just so I could sneaky-eat. In the end I stayed strong though! Walked right past the kitchen and didn't even pause.
 
Oh that sneaky eating can be so difficult...just one little handful of something can turn into an empty bag! At least with me it can! I think we develop habits and seems like perhaps you are developing the habit of saying "Nope!" :)
 
I don't allow myself to walk. Like most people I don't think it doesn't count if you do, at least for everyone else. If I have to stop to swat one of our giant biting flies I make sure that I run a whole mile after to count for my run streak. Once I let one bite me because it was too close to the end of my run and I didn't have another mile left in me. I didn't realize how stupid that is until I just typed it.

Great job on the sneaky snack victory!
 
That's what great about running, Q, everyone gets to make their own rules. I have secondary goals for different runs but my primary goal is always the same: don't stop and sit down on a park bench in the middle. If I do that the run is over! Maybe it would be different if I'd done some sort of competitive sport (or even a gym class) after 8th grade? Or maybe not. I'll never know! I walk when I feel like it. It could be once in the middle, or it could be twice in the first three miles and none in the last five. I was unprepared for my final half marathon last year so I did one nine mile training run where I walked one minute out of every ten just to remind my feet what it was like to move for that many miles in a row. Every day is different!

Wednesday's food:
Cottage cheese. 1/2 of a bagel with cream cheese. Salad with chicken and beans. Homemade zucchini muffin. 200 calories worth of dark chocolate almonds. Pork chop with rice and corn. Homemade ice cream.

I'd say food was a little heavy yesterday. Dinner was quite large, but I had been looking forward to that ice cream since we made it over the weekend so I ate it and enjoyed it.

Exercise was 30 minutes of strength moves and stretching. I use an interval timer on my phone, 45 seconds of work + 15 seconds of rest. Squats, planks, random arm moves, incline pushups.... Whatever strikes my fancy when the timer says to go.

Ten days with no booze! Except the limoncello, of course. I'm feeling good.
 
Last edited:
Its amazing the food that we can eat that is good and healthy at the same time. So amen when you say "who needs things to be beaded and fried in order to enjoy them".
 
Congrats on the 10 days without booze Oaks! I'm on day 3. I think it gets easier as you go. Hope no-one offers me Limincello though! Love that stuff, after tasting it in Italy. YUM! ......stop Cate! Seriously though, I'm not missing it. GO US!
 
Thursday's food:
Overnight oats. Ham & cheese sandwich. Homemade pizza. Shirley temple (sprite + grenadine). Homemade ice cream (tiny scoop). Noticeably absent - fruits and veggies.

Exercise was four miles of intervals on the treadmill in 40:57. My time goal was to beat 41:14, so it was a successful session.

Cate, yesterday was my hardest day by far! But it hadn't been too tough until then. I have to confess, G was drinking wine and I picked up his glass and took a big sniff. I don't have too many stressful days at work but yesterday was one of them and that wine looked soooo tempting. Weighed myself today and haven't lost anything, but the pizza and ice cream might be the reason for that :)
 
My problem when I don´t eat fruit and veg is that I can´t get up to the food volume I need to make my stomach feel full (well, I can, but only when I eat way more calories). Otherwise I could definitely live on ham&cheese toasties, fries and icecream...
 
Speaking of ice cream, LaMa, I seem to have developed a little nightly habit of eating homemade ice cream with homemade Magic Shell (which is a chocolate sauce that hardens when it hits something frozen). I only eat out of a teacup, though. So my serving size is reasonable, at least.

I'm bad about tracking food on the weekends but as far as exercise goes I completed a ten mile run on Saturday and a five mile hike on Sunday. My office is eleven miles from my house and every year I say I am going to run my commute but I've yet to successfully do it. Maybe now's the time?

Two full weeks of avoiding booze, which is amazing after the mood I was in when I got home from work on Friday. But as previously mentioned, I have replaced drinking with a steady ice cream habit. Let's see what I can do about that new vice of mine!
 
Great job on the boozelessness! About the icecream: try calculating the calories for your typical serving. If you think it´s worth that amount of calories, enjoy it! You don´t have to take away all the fun...
 
LaMa, your comment led me to MyFitnessPal where I discovered just how easy it is to calculate a recipe's calories. Who knew it was so simple?? I have to figure out how many servings my last batch made but at first glance.... Not worth it for an every day treat. Strawberries for dessert tonight, I think!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top