Monday, April 12, 2010

Back in the saddle again....

I was losing weight when I was working at the prison. Nine hour shifts, no chair, lots of walking, and only ONE 15 minute break will help with that. My feet were hurting all the time (I have plantar fasciitis which is very painful) and when I quit the prison, my feet continued to hurt for weeks afterward. For a little while I maintained what I had lost and lost a few pounds more!

It's funny how life happens though. Did you know that many of the people, including winners, from The Biggest Loser regain huge amounts of the weight they lost while on the show? It's because life stops when they are on the show and their job becomes exercising for 6 hours a day and only eating 1200 calorie diets! They go home and life happens and they gain it all back! Well, life happened. And I gained back every bit of what I lost.

It's not all because of being busy, or starting a new job. I'm ashamed to admit that the majority of it is because I lack self control. The best formula for losing weight is simply this:

Calories Burned > Calories Consumed

OR

Calories In < Calories Out

This means that to be successful in weight loss I have to burn more calories than I eat. Sounds easy right? That's where the self control comes in to play. I know how to exercise, and believe it or not, I actually like exercising when I'm actually doing it. I know how to eat healthy meals. The trick is having the self control to consistently do both at the same time!

Last weekend, I started riding my bike with my husband. I prefer kickboxing, but my feet have been hurting too much to go consistently. We replaced my stock pedals with "clipless" pedals. Clipless is a misnomer. Back in the day when pedals had straps, you "clipped" your shoe into place on the pedal. Well now they don't have straps, so they call them "clipless." Obviously, a better name would be strapless. This is what was explained to me anyway, I have not researched the accuracy of the story. In any case, your shoes quite literally "clip" into the pedals, and you must rotate your foot to the side to remove it from the pedal. It took a minute to figure out how to get them clipped in and start riding. It took a fall to figure out how to get them unclipped and stop riding. I unclipped the right food and fell over to the left. I now have nice palm sized road rash on my left shin. I got back on and rode some more on Saturday. I rode again on Sunday and noticed that my derrier is very sore. I rode tonight and my backside HURTS! Kyle says it's not your legs you have to get into shape to ride, it's your butt! I swear the saddle bruises the BONE! But I'm riding!

Today's meal progress: I had a healthy breakfast (egg sandwhich), a not so healthy lunch (cheese enchilada, chips and hot sauce, coke), and a healthy dinner (Lean Cuisine, water and Diet Coke). I rode my bike outside for 23 minutes with my husband, and had fresh pineapple and a spoonful of cottage cheese for dessert.

I appreciate words of encouragement, and prayers are also welcome!