Good to be Back!

I must say – it felt really good to be back on the wagon again. I realized that a much as I enjoy eating with abandon and not counting calories, there is most certainly a price to pay for it – namely weight gain and anxiety over weight gain. While I haven’t gotten on the scale, I know I have gained some weight back because I can feel it in the way my clothes fit and also the way my face looks (the double chin coming back :0). So I am just going to forget about the scale and tape measure right now and just focus on BEING FOCUSED on what I am supposed to be doing. Most importantly, I am not going to let the stress over school and my aggravating job derail me.

How will I accomplish this? The main thing is...I am going to try to get my school work done EARLY…yes, there is a concept…so that the days of it looming over me like a big, black cloud are shortened. My original goal was to get my masters thesis finished by May and today I decided I am not going to wait that long. At this point, about 80% of my research is done so I am going to work diligently to finish up the research over the next 2 weeks and then I am going to spend a week or two writing my paper. And then, I will have my advisor review it and I am sure there will be revisions to make, but in any event….I am hoping by the end of March to have it finished.

Then, I can direct the rest of my school focus to the class I am taking and get the work done for that class (we have a big paper to write, plus weekly reading and writing assignments).

Today I did one of my new favorite workouts – Michelle Dozois’ Your Best Body Circuit. I got this workout for Christmas and I think I’ve done it 3 times so far and I really like it a lot – in fact, I like it more and more each time I do it. It’s fun like the old Firms in that it moves quickly from exercise to exercise (i.e. not a lot of rep overkill which gets on my nerves), the music is good and I like that it has cardio intervals interspersed with strength - I feel really worked out afterwards. I also like that it’s at a higher level of intensity – probably most suitable for solid intermediate exercisers and higher. I wouldn’t recommend it to a beginner – it’s a bit intense. Definitely a keeper.

My calorie allotment was 1400 today. I had a shake for breakfast with some PB2 and malt added in – extra yummy! (350). For lunch I had a vegetarian “chicken” sandwich on a bagel with a little cheddar, yellow mustard, lettuce and tomato (480). Afterwards, I had a small York Peppermint Patty (47). For dinner I had a large apple (100) followed by tortilla chips heated with a little cheddar (430). Total calories today: 1407. Pretty good!