Day 19

So I weighed myself today.  Even though I was initially happy, I really didn’t like what I read there:

Weight: 164
BFP: 38.7%

My BFP is the same that it was last week.  Which means that the four pounds I lost between now and then was all muscle!  So I’m changing things around again.  I originally had my Lose It! program set to lose 1.5 pounds a week, which allotted me 1357 calories a day.  I tweaked the calories down to 1220 a day, close to the 1200 I had allotted myself.  If I set it to 2 pounds a week, it allots me 1107 a day.  That’s a 250 calorie difference.  So I’m thinking, if I try to eat the 1357 calories a day, my exercise could bring me down to the 1107 a day, sticking me back into the healthy range of weight loss and hopefully giving me a higher fat to muscle loss ratio.  I’m going to try it for the week, see where it puts me.

Today I tried to have something a little different for breakfast.  Typically I have a yogurt (between 90 and 110 calories) with a third cup of Bran Buds stirred in (70 calories), putting me under my 200 calorie breakfast budget.  Today I had three egg whites (50 calories) with an ounce of 75% fat free cheese (70 calories), and four small pieces of ham (45 calories) stirred in.  With that I had half of an Arnold Sandwich Thin (50 calories) with a teaspoon of apple butter (10 calories).  So breakfast this morning was 224 calories.  And I am sooo full! 

If I add 26 calories to each meal, I will come really close to the 1357 I’m aiming for.  The question becomes, how to do this?  I’m already under budget on almost every meal, and I’m so full all day long, how am I going to make myself go over budget?

I cut my cardio out today, doing 30 minutes on my exercise ball instead (I added it in under Pilates, couldn’t find an exercise ball option).  I’m wondering if I should stick to low impact strength training (Pilates, my exercise ball, resistance bands, walking, etc) for a while.  At least until my allotted calories drop low enough where I have to burn off what I’m eating.  That way I’m building muscle, which burns more calories than fat anyway.

I’m also wondering if I should add a weekly shock to my system now, instead of waiting.  Matt and I were talking awhile ago about once a week going out and not worrying about what we eat for one meal.  Keep track and don’t go over budget the rest of the day, but for that one meal get a Big Mac with fries, if that’s what we really want.  It’d be a shock of calories to my system, which I’ve noticed tends to give people’s metabolism a kick.  It’d have to be the same day every week, that way it’s evenly spaced, and we wouldn’t go super crazy (order a huge appetizer, three drinks, a huge meal, and dessert), just do something like order the Two for Twenty at Applebee’s.  Another bonus would be that I wouldn’t be depriving myself of things that I like, so I’d be less likely to cheat down the line.  I won’t start doing this any time soon, just one day.  And maybe sooner than I originally thought I would.

I applied for two jobs yesterday.  One would be a part-time job I would work in addition to my current one, and the other would be a full-time job that would replace my current one.  I think getting the full-time would be best, not only for the pay and such, but for my health.  I would have a steady schedule, and would be able to plan my meals, workouts, and sleep more accurately.  Working two jobs would leave me little time to work out, would only give me four hours of sleep a night, and would mess up my eating schedule.

Speaking of messing up my schedules, I agreed to work two overnights this week.  I’m sure this is going to mess with me, though I’m not sure how quite yet.  I’m hoping I can just treat it as my days being flipped, (getting up at 6 pm instead of am, etc), but I worry it’s going to be more difficult than that.  Oh well, we shall see.