Wow. I ate way... too much... today. Urf. Another day in a long line...

I'm a little torn about what direction to take my blog. Do I talk about what has been happening since I stopped tracking my foods? Do I go with a pep talk? ...or do I just make a plan and start working it?

As I have been completely derailed for the past two or three weeks (and have undoubtedly gained weight), talking about what has been going on will either sound like excuses, or it will reinforce my derailment (or both). A pep talk without a plan is just gum flapping... so a plan it is.

Tom Venuto says over and over: If what you are doing is working, then stick with it. I kind of broke that rule early on because I was afraid that I was losing weight too quickly.

I was making the majority of my progress when I was doing cardio (only) 3-5 days per week and burning or reducing intake down to 1750 calories at least 5 out of every 7 days. At one point I lost 3 lbs one week and 4 lbs the next, so I bumped my calorie level to 1850. I was using the elliptical machine to calculate my calorie burn (before I had my polar watch). As soon as I changed, my weight loss stalled.

Tom's plan involves calorie cycling every 3 days. (Low three days, high one or two, low three days...) The Body Sculpting Bible suggests 1 week low and 1 week high. My guy is telling me that 3 days is too short - even though Tom claims great success with his clients on this plan.

Dilemma
Since I'm off track, I don't know if I should go back to what was working and then start changing again, or try something that applies what I have learned so far and what I would like to try.

To go completely back, here is the plan:
Elliptical only 45-60 minute 3-7 days per week
Calorie burn 650
Use rapid calorie cycling -- 3 days low 1 day high.
Net calorie intake of 1750 calories 5 or 6 of every 7 days and 2500 one or two days per week. Optimally, I'll eat the same number of calories every day and hit the gym 5 times.

To use a modified approach:
Adjust my polar watch to agree with the elliptical machine
Weight Train (wt) 3 days per week
Cardio 5-7 days per week 20-30 min on wt days, 45-50 on non-wt days
Total calories for wt + cardio = 650 (or more)
Use modified calorie cycling -- 5 days low 2 days high
Net calorie intake of 1850 5 days during the week
Net calorie intake of 2500 on the weekend

Which to do... hmm...