Old Habits Diet Hard: February Weigh-In

Hi tribe! I'm alive! I've been calorie counting for about a month now, but since I started this process while on vacation, it's a little tricky to gauge when I actually started "dieting". I'm considering the two weeks before I came back to NYC as training weeks - learning to use the MyFitnessPal system, researching food groups and healthy dietary balances, etc.


I am now a little more than two and a half weeks into my "real diet", and I have lost two and half pounds! Since my goal is a pound a week, this is perfect. If I stay on track, I will hit my goal of 10 pounds before the wedding (or at least come damn close to it).


Last week I also exceeded my exercise goal, which is 3 days a week of 30 minutes or 207 calories each workout, so a total of 90 minutes and 620 calories in a week. Last week, I worked out 3 days for a total of 101 minutes and 826 calories! Ideally, I'd like to up my workout goal to 4 days a week, but I want to see how school stress goes before I make that kind of commitment.


The weird thing is, most of the time I don't really feel like I'm dieting. All I do all day is eat. I don't really feel like I'm depriving myself of anything - in fact, I'm cooking more and really enjoying it. My biggest concern is that I think about food CONSTANTLY. Everything is a decision. But I've gotten really good at fractions.


Here's what a typical day looks like:


Breakfast
Trader Joe's Oatmeal
Coffee (1 1/2 cups with 1/2 cup of warm skim milk)


Lunch
Two eggs, scrambled with peppers, onions and tomatoes
1 slice of Trader Joe's Soft 10 Grain Bread with margarine


Mid-Day Snack
Baby carrots
Mini Babybel Light Cheese
Trader Joe's Fat-Free Cottage Cheese


Dinner
Jambalaya with chicken breast and TJ's Garlic & Herb Chicken Sausage (no shrimp)


Dessert
1 Tbsp Jif Natural Creamy Peanut Butter
1 cup of Skim Milk


Water Count: 7 cups
Vitamin: TJ's Women's Once Daily
Exercise: Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred Level 1, ~254 calories burned


I actually went under calories on this day by 119 calories, so I gave myself half of a Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich... still under calories by 39 calories, still WAY under because of the workout calories earned.


How have your food habits changed so far this year? I hope you're making progress on any resolutions you have!