Day 16

Yesterday’s Intake:
BW: wheat toast w/ low fat cottage cheese
AW: Protein powder w/ water
S: grilled chicken, cherry tomatoes, ½ avocado, organic vinaigrette
L: brown rice sushi: raw tuna, slivers of avocado, nori, low sodium soy sauce + grapefruit w/ Splenda
S: Fat Free yogurt, 1 oz. almondsD: protein powder w/ water

My Plan to Cut my Caloric Intake:
So yesterday I came to the realization that I’m eating really healthy but I need to hack off about 800-900 calories from what I’ve been eating in order to lose weight. Wow it was difficult. It’s hard trying to plan my diet around: busy schedule, tight budget and making sure the food I plan is appetizing/satisfying enough that I will actually end up eating it when it’s 4pm and all I can think of is carbs and chocolate. Here is my plan to cut the calories:
- Switch from low-fat to non-fat cottage cheese
- Carb-free dinners (like veggies and chicken)
- Healthier cheat day
- Mix protein shakes w/ water instead of milk
- Limit healthy fat consumption
- Switch tofu or egg whites for chicken

None of these will be easy. And they aren’t cold hard rules just something to shoot for when planning my meals. Hopefully I will stay satisfied. I really crave carbs the later in the day it gets, a baked sweet potato with dinner is always so satisfying. And veggies REALLY don’t appeal to me for dinner. But I had to cut back SOMEWHERE so I decided to follow the encouragement from Body for Life for Women: limit carbs for dinner. Because you likely will not burn it off before you get to sleep, whereas if you eat them for breakfast or lunch you still have hours to burn them off before bedtime.

And I will continue to have my cheat day, but I will try to make healthy versions of the food I love. Instead of blueberry pancakes w/ blueberry syrup (210 calories for 2 tbl.!) I plan to make “protein pancakes” a recipe I found from many body builder’s and put sugar-free pancake syrup on it (only 35 calories for 2 tbl.) we will see how that tastes.

I Want Muscles:
This morning it was TOUGH to get up. Thursday mornings are going to be the hardest I think, because I don’t get home from church Wednesday until close to 10pm which means I don’t get in bed until about 10:30. Then 5:00am comes rolling around and the bed is so warm and it’s so cold and dark outside. Also because my muscles have been sore and laying there is a much more comfortable option. Nevertheless, I got up and went to the gym and did upper body and abs resistance training. I was actually thinking of that pic I posted of Madonna yesterday while I was kicking my butt on the triceps machine. I want muscles! I want to lose this fat!

The Bottom Line:
I just keep telling myself that if I stick to it at least until February 4 it will be worth it. I just have to endure a few weeks of 1,300-1,400 calorie days. Just a few weeks of the gym everyday. Then I can go back to eating the 2,000 HEALTHY calories and maybe only go to the gym 3-4 days a week and maintain my trim figure (hopefully it will be trim by then).