Breaking through to the 30s!

That's the 130's, actually. It's been a loooooong time since the second number on the scale, next to the 1, was a 3. And the last few times it was probably dehydration, not actual weight loss.

I know this doesn't actually add up; I was around 142 at the beginning of the week, and now 139.8. You must burn 3500 extra calories in order to lose 1 pound of fat, and I didn't exercise nearly that much this week or cut that many calories out. However, this is what I know about my body: just a few days of eating right (and exercising, but that's obviously not my problem) causes me to drop more weight than would seem appropriate given calories in, calories out. I'm sure someone can explain why that would be - and maybe I'm not using the right base metabolic rate, so I actually burn more calories than I think I do - but it doesn't matter, really, because I know this is how it is. I can drop the first 4 or 5 pounds easily; it's getting beyond that plateau that's really hard.

The reason it's so hard is that when I weigh 136 or so, everything I own fits, I feel as near to completely confident in my body as I ever have, and I know I look pretty good.

And when all those things are true, I no longer have the desire to diet. I get into this mindset that says, "Hey! I'm thin! I can have that brownie!"

And that's a problem. So this time is going to be different. The focus isn't going to be getting to be happy with what I see in the mirror - it's going to be dropping extra pounds of fat so I can be faster on my bike and on my feet. It's like this: when people ask me for bike advice (like I know anything), I tell them they need to get a bike that won't get in their way - their speed and endurance should be gated on their bodies and their abilities. So I've got a great bike, and I'm getting a new one. I've got the right running shoes and all the gear that helps me do what I need to do. But to do everything faster, to recover better, and to race harder, losing fat is the easiest, healthiest, and frankly cheapest option for me.

On that note, here are today's data:

Food:
Pre-workout: banana and coffee with milk, 110 cals
Breakfast: 2 hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese, nectarine: 290 cals (notice I've cut out my second cup of coffee! That will last just one more week until we get fancy new Starbucks coffee machines in our kitchen at work)
Lunch: 20/20 salad with chicken, 320 cals
Snack: Chicken and vegetables (leftovers), 200 cals
Planned indulgence: Dark chocolate, 55 cals
Total so far: 975 calories
"Dinner" (meaning, a random collection of food eaten between 7:50 p.m. and 9 p.m): String cheese, turkey breast, a Kudos bar (is this candy? it's only 100 cals either way), chicken noodle soup: 470 cals
Total today: 1445 cals <-- Perfect!

I also could have not eaten the chicken noodle soup, but I did because I'm running 12 miles tomorrow morning and I am worried that going to bed without a real dinner will cause me to be super-hungry in the morning which will cause me to eat too much which will give me cramps on the run. Maybe. Plus, on a day I worked out pretty hard and did yoga, plus ran all over campus putting up signs for the hubby's business, I figure I shouldn't go below 1400 calories anyway.

Exercise:
Indoor cycling with Danielle! 1 hour
Lift weights with the princesses, 30 minutes
600 calories burned
Yoga, 1 hour - I didn't wear my HR monitor, how good am I! Focusing on breathing and stretching, not burning calories!