Thursday, October 1, 2009

Day 1: And So It Has Begun

My first day on The Plan went well; albeit a little confusing.

The best part of the whole day was my run. (And when I say run, note that I am following Hal Higdon's Beginning Runner's Guide so I am actually doing a combination of running, jogging and walking.) It was nothing short of exhilarating and when it was over, I actually wanted more. I can't wait to do it again tomorrow. It felt soooooo good.

I stuck to my caloric requirements all day long. I had a banana and a cup of pomegranate green tea before my run, two pieces of toast with light cream cheese and a huge plate of raw veggies for lunch, an Activia yogurt for a snack, and a crazy delicious salad with grilled chicken and quinoa for dinner. I thought about taking a picture of my dinner but it wasn't that pretty to look at and anyway I was too hungry to bother.

Which brings me to the confusing part of my day. After dinner, I found myself STARVING. Like, ready to eat cardboard starving. I checked my cool little iPhone program only to find that the exercise I logged didn't show up in my calorie allotment for the day. No wonder I was starving! So I fiddled with the program, and even emailed tech support and much to my surprise, I got a return email within a few minutes. Very impressive.

Anyway, I was able to get everything sorted out but even with the few extra calories to spare, I was (and am still) feeling very hungry. I am wondering if I may have been too ambitious in setting my weight loss goal at 6.5 pounds per month. I am going to stick it out today and see how I feel tomorrow. If I still feel this ravenous, then perhaps I will readjust my math a bit. I should also note that I am breastfeeding - not a lot, only 3-4 times a day - but that alone does demand a few extra calories. I'm not sure how many so I guess I better look that up. [Edit: Dr. Google tells me that breastfeeding burns 200-500 calories a day, but since I am only feeding 3-4 times a day, I am going to assume I am using about 100 and add that into my program starting tomorrow.]

I think it will likely take me a few days of messing around with my program, my goals and all my little bugaboos until I find the happy healthy weight loss balance I'm seeking. The most important thing, I think, is for me to stay adaptable and keep adjusting and readjusting until I get that balance just right.

But all in all, a great day. I am more inspired than ever, and it feels so good. Off to bed!

1 comment:

JavaChick said...

Congrats on having a great day one!

I've tried a few online calorie counting sites over the years, and I'm pretty sure I remember one of them including breastfeeding in the options to figure out calorie intake - maybe sparkpeople.com? Experiment with it a bit though - everyone is different. If you can up your calories and still find that you are dropping pounds at a reasonable rate, then that's probably the way to go.

One other thought though - if you are used to snacking in the evening/after dinner, your body may just be expecting it. In that case it may just take a bit of time to get used to your new habits.