Exercise- then and now

Yesterday was a harder day.  I was exhausted for most of the day.  Starting a new exercise regime combined with very little sleep will do that to you.  I was craving chocolate for about six hours yesterday.  But I knew that it would profit me nothing to sit down and eat a cup of chocolate chips.  I knew that I would feel sick afterwards, I knew that I would be upset with myself afterwards, and I also knew that eating plain chocolate chips was not really what I wanted.  I wanted that chocolate cake from the restaurant Monday night.  So I was able to talk myself out of it.  I'm proud of myself for not giving in.  I think finding a balance with sweets is going to be key if I am going to have success moderating my diet in the long term.  I don't want to do anything crazy like cutting it out completely.  I've tried it, to disastrous effects (can you say binging).  But I also know I don't really need to be spending 400 calories a day on desserts.  Yesterday I ate half an oatmeal raisin cookie, because the craving for sugar was so strong.  But it wasn't chocolate and it didn't satisfy so I didn't finish it, and I didn't try to satisfy my craving by eating the remainder of the oatmeal raisin cookies we had left.  So yes, I am proud of myself.  Even though I ate sugar, I still made a good choice, and I was still able to be strong, and my half a cookie was about 100 calories.  Much better than losing control and ending up eating 1,000-3000 calories depending on how out of control I became.  I could have made cake.  I could have made chocolate cookies.  But I didn't.  So yes, I am happy that I was able to avoid one of my biggest binge triggers- being very tired and not being able to sleep (since I can't sleep unless my kids are sleeping otherwise little toddlers are unsupervised and that's bad). 

Anyway, I have exercised for three days in a row this week.  My goal is five days a week.  I think that is a really good number for me.  I've been trying to think about what really worked the first year when I lost most of my weight.  I have been thinking about what I want to maintain and what feels good for me.  And I think that exercising five days a week, for about an hour a day is a really good place for me.  That's what feels good, and it doesn't feel like it's too much and I feel like I've accomplished something.  Doing 30 minutes a day felt too short and going over an hour feels too long and leaves me exhausted the rest of the day.  I've also been thinking about the quality of my workouts.  When I was in the thick of things, mainly after the first year, I was so obsessed with trying to lose weight and so frustrated that I couldn't that I developed this mentality that my workouts needed to be at max effort and max capacity all the time.  I didn't want to warm up or cool down, I wanted to get the highest calorie burn possible, and I nearly drove myself insane trying to do it.  In reality, the warm up and the cool down are super important.  They prepare your body for working harder and help you recover and transition into your next activity. 

I've also realized that not every day is going to be awesome and that is OK.  I'm going to have off days just like I'm going to have awesome days.  Some days I'm really tired and I have to do an easier workout and some days I feel great and I can really kill at my workout.  There is an ebb and flow, and it's not going to be high intensity all the time.  And that is ok because the important thing is that I am moving.  I am working my body, and I'm doing something I love.  I've been playing Zumba Core on my Wii

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To be successful at maintaining a workout, I need to be doing something I love.  And I love Zumba, and I love these games.  When I get tired of the core workouts, I'm going to switch over to the Zumba Dance app on my ipad.  I should figure out how to hook it up to the TV.  Then I will go over to Zumba World Party.  I don't have a whole lot of future plans because I don't know what the future is going to look like next month.  I'm taking it one step at a time.