Have I mentioned that my butt feels smaller? *laugh* I just noticed it yesterday. My belly is looking a bit less lumpy, too. This is SO COOL! This is the middle of week 5 ... At my Saturday weigh-in I was 10.5 lbs below my starting weight; and I am happy to say that I have no clue what my weight is right now. I just know that I'm on track.

Attaching Emotion to The Plan, Not the Scale
I've read several diaries lately where people absolutely beat themselves up over hitting a plateau or gaining a few pounds. I know its common... heck my wife even does it. Something my personal trainer told me years ago: Don't attach emotion to the numbers on the scale. Attach your pride to how well you work the plan. If you stick to the plan and hit the marks every day feel good! If you blow it, feel bad... then fix it.

When I first started back on my road to fitness, I meticulously tracked my weight and bodyfat. I have a log for the first two weeks of what happened every single day with my weight and body fat. After a while, I realized that two things were happening. First, I watched my weight fluctuate all over the place - which wasn't providing very much in the way of useful information. Second, time on the diet was passing SO SLOWLY. When I decided to only get on the scale and break out the calipers once per week, suddenly the weeks started flying by.

Yesterday and Today...
Ahhh My food and exercise couldn't have worked out better yesterday. Thanks to that massive calorie burn on the elliptical Monday morning, I was able to exactly offset the 250(ish) calorie overage on Sunday. I was able to burn nearly the same amount today - which puts me in a great position to offset the unexpected Saturday maintenance day.

I'm shooting for a 750 calorie burn every day. I didn't realize it, but with that magic number, I can eat at my maintenance calorie level (2500) and be at my 30% deficit (1750)! 1750+750 = 2500

The Trick to Sticking with Fitness
This sort of stuff REALLY gets me excited! Couting up the calories, figuring out my BMR/RMR and finding the right burn rate. I am SUCH A NUMBERS NERD *laugh* Honestly, I think the trick to staying with a diet plan is finding something that you really like about the process... For me it is watching the numbers, for others it might be figure out how to cook a super healthy meal that tastes just as good as its fattening equivalent. Some might get excited about planning their workouts, and still others might simply enjoy writing a blog every day

Find Something You Enjoy About the Process
A lot of people tell fitness newbies to "focus on what you want out of your body"; but frankly, unless you find something that you like about the process of losing fat or gaining muscle, focusing on what you want will just make you miserable until you get there.

Focus
When I was in college I used to cycle a lot (road bicycling). I was going to school in Knoxville, Tennessee - a beautiful, green, hilly place. Cycling for me was about the journey, not the destination. I would ride 100 miles every weekend - sweeping down through the mountains of Oak Ridge.

On the straightaways, I would soak in the scenery; but on the uphills, I would keep my head down and focus on my cadence. If I looked up to see where I was on the hill, the feeling of fatigue would often overwhelm me and I would stop. The second I stopped focusing on the process and started thinking about the destination, I failed. The trick is to set an attainable goal, then forget about it and focus on working the plan. As long as I know the plan and focus on the work, I know I'll be amazed when I get to the top of the hill and look back over how I got there. This philosophy carries over to just about anything worth having in life.

Cycling Calories
Speaking of cycling, I need to figure out my game plan for the next couple of days. My goal is to have 3 days at 30% below maintenance (1750 calories) and 1 day at maintenance (2500) to keep my body out of starvation mode. With that in mind, I should have a >30% day today, followed by a 2500 calorie day tomorrow... but that will take my weekly total higher than I would like. So the question is, do I take a 4th day at 30% and risk dropping my metabolism? Hm.

Nah. There is no point. I'm set up to have two hi days this week (which is what I usually have), so as long as my calories are on track, I should still have a net loss for the week.

The real trick for me today is to eat enough! (Man - I love having that problem!)
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D'oh Guess its not the problem I thought it was. 200 over. Shoot. Maybe I can sneak in some cardio tonight.