Megan - Week 3 Update

This has been my most challenging week. Everything was going very well up until Friday. Friday I decided to skip the gym. Friday I decided to eat a slice of Papa John's pizza. Both decisions I felt guilty about. My calories and macro nutrients were still in line, even with the slice of pizza, but I have no good reason why I skipped the gym. I made up for it Saturday, doing both hot yoga and weight lifting later in the day. I didn't like being off the schedule I have set for myself.

I feel like that small control loss opened the door for bad decision making on Easter. I started the day off in the right mind. I made myself a smaller portion of breakfast than usual because I knew I'd end up eating breakfast again later at Colby's parent's house. Then the Easter basket happened. I let in and had just a few small pieces; a mini snickers, a mini Cadberry creme egg, and a few jelly beans. I gave to Colby my giant Reese's peanut butter eggs so I wouldn't eat them. Breakfast came and I still felt in control, but ended up eating larger portions of eggs and bacon than I had in my mind (I didn't get to make my own plate). Even after all this, I calculated my calories and nutrients in hopes that I could still turn my day around. I told Colby I was going to go to the gym that afternoon to do some cardio for about an hour, but even he said, "Megan it's Easter". Well unleash the gates of hell why don't you! I proceeded to eat the rest of my Easter basket with a grand total of 6 mini Cadberry eggs, 9 mini Snickers, and about two and half servings of jelly beans. I ate everything I wanted at dinner; ham, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, a roll, and a mini cupcake. To top it all off I WAS STILL HUNGRY! I went to Cookout and got a chocolate chip cheesecake milkshake. Go big or go home on your cheat day!

I calculated all of this in my calorie tracker program I use every day. I wasn't going to let myself be blind to the decisions I had made. By the end I was about 1,000 calories over my daily total. When I looked at the breakdown of what I had ate, it started to make sense. I was so hungry because I hardly had any real protein during the day. That was an eye opener for me (not to mention the gross amount of sugar I took in).

Today is a new day. I could beat myself up about the day before or I could get back on track. I'm choosing to get back on track with the addition of an ass kicking at the gym tonight (quite literally). Next weekend we have the Cooper River Bridge Run. I've got the majority of my meals and snacks prepared to be packed. I'm bringing individual protein packets I bought at GNC, a few Quest Bars, beef jerky, and some fresh fruit, to keep me from eating out the whole time and spending a bunch of money on food I don't even like. I'm working out Monday-Thursday this week, taking Friday off to drive to Charleston, and then of course doing the 10k on Saturday. I'm looking forward to staying on track and hopefully doing so will lend me the confidence to wear my Nike running shorts in public on Saturday.

This morning I begrudgingly took an update picture for the end of week 3. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The definition is starting to come in on my abs. I've been able to tell their is an improvement because I don't exactly have to flex my stomach as much to make the definition appear, it's just kind of there. 6 pack abs in 2013!