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Monday, January 2, 2012

The First Day Is in the Bag

Getting started is often the hardest part of changing your habits. I saw this in action first hand yesterday as I rolled out my plans for low carb eating and exercise. I was prepared. I have done my homework. I collected a variety of recipes to get me through the induction phase of the Atkins plan, done the necessary shopping for that menu and even provided healthy choices for snacks.
Yes, I’m a snack eater, mostly in the evenings. I don’t know why it hits me then. It’s an ingrained habit that has transpired over years. I finish working for the day, sit down in front of the television and I need to snack. Maybe “need” isn’t the right word but you know what I mean.
Anyhow, after a nearly perfect day of less than 1400 calories and just 19 carbs, I indulged. At 9:00 at night, I opened a candy cane of Reese’s peanut butter cups and ate them…all. What was I thinking? “It’s New Year’s Day- I’ll start the diet tomorrow.” Naturally that kind of thinking won’t get me very far at changing my old habits.
I did exercise yesterday however. We purchased a Kinect for our Xbox 360 for Christmas and a couple of games. The one I thought I would like is Dance Central and I was right. I love to dance. As a matter of fact, that’s how I met my husband but that’s a story for another blog post. Anyway, I like the way the game teaches you the moves. You can choose the difficulty level and you can spend as much time as you need to, learning the moves, before you actually “perform.” It helped immensely that I kicked my hubby’s butt at it!
The game is meant to be played for fun so it doesn’t give you and stats on calories burned or anything like that. While I’m a statistics geek and like to know those things, the beauty of the game is that it IS fun. You don’t notice the time passing. You just enjoy the game. And BTW- no, this is not a paid endorsement. I would tell you if it was.
So this morning, I hesitated before visiting the bathroom scale, fearing it would reprimand me for my Reese’s infraction and that retribution would be swift and gruesome. I was surprised to see a nearly 4 pound loss! I tried the scale several times, even moving it to different locations in the room to make sure it was right. The reading never faltered. I weighed 255.9.
Obviously I am delighted with the outcome but I know to continue my late night, unhealthy snacking would only be tempting fate. Fortunately, I believe most of the left over Christmas temptations are gone now.  I am looking forward to today’s round of Dance Central and the Curry Chicken and Indian Spiced Cauliflower I am making for dinner. 
Hope you are doing well in the early days of setting and achieving your goals.

4 comments:

Angel said...

Congrats on the loss! I know you'll get the snacking under control soon.

A Girl and Her eBooks said...

Way to go! I'll admit that my pantry is well stocked with marked down Christmas goodies, but I'm being good about how I eat them. I'm very proud of you ((hugs))

Amy Dungan said...

Awesome! Keep up the great work!

John said...

Nice to hear that the Christmas goodies are gone! I'm bringing mine to school tomorrow so I am finally rid of that temptation. Happy New Year!

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