Hmm...nothing much to say

It's definitely harder to blog without a specific athletic goal in mind. So, here are a few little tidbits about my diet/exercise life lately:

-- It's really hard to start running. It takes me at least four miles to warm up - and since I'm only running six to seven at most, it seems like most of my run is spent thinking, "Wow. Did I ever like running?"

-- Cycling is much more fun again. I went out with Jessi on Saturday and really enjoyed our ride. I took her on my favorite downhills. :-) So of course we had to climb back up, since we did a loop, but I know ways to avoid climbing super-steep stuff when I'm out for fun versus training.

-- Even on Saturday when I rode with Jessi, I was still sore from my mountain-biking experience.

-- Diet is difficult, but not impossible. Unfortunately, now that I'm at my normal weight (around 140), every day I wake up and I'm still 140. I know I have to step it up and really be diligent about my eating if I want to drop lower than this...but it's so hard.

-- I did eat out a number of times this weekend, though, and had dessert one night (mango and ginger gelato with chocolate sauce...yum) and I ate good things like bagels, and my weight's not up. So I can maintain this weight fairly easily if I want to - I just need to eat healthy most of the time and let myself have treats infrequently. Of course, I want to be lighter, so that's actually pointless.

-- I have said this a zillion times, but it's worth repeating: if I eat something carbalicious in the morning - like a bagel, muffin, coffee cake, et cetera - it doesn't have to mean that the rest of the day is ruined. But the rest of the day does work like this: I'm very hungry and much more tempted to continue to eat unhealthy. So if I can fight the hunger all morning and temptation and eat a large, high-protein low-fat salad at lunchtime, I'll get through the delicious yet poor choice for breakfast. But if I make a better choice at breakfast, there will be no fight all morning and I'll remain on track all day.

-- For the right foods once in a while, it's worth getting off track and having to fight to get back on.

-- Seven pounds is a dramatic difference - not so much in how I look, but most certainly in how I feel. I'm fairly certain people who know me can't tell the difference between 147 and 140 on me.
But there's a level of self-confidence that comes from being at a good weight. I wish I could say I felt that confidence all the time, but honestly, I don't.

-- I have an extra motivation for dropping a few pounds: the 20/20 office has asked me to go to Arizona to speak at a conference. I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to say, but I'm sure it's something like, "Look at my "before" picture and look at me today! Amazing, huh!" Which, of course, it is, but it's also a ton of hard work and dedication to the cause. I'm not going to say the 20/20 program is a miracle, but I'm happy to say it provides the right tools for a motivated person to get the weight loss done.

-- Meal-tracking is the single most important thing a person can do to lose weight. I will have to remind myself of this the next time I fall off the meal-tracking wagon. For now, I'm so happy I can get FitDay on my Smartphone!