ELATPBS - Day 20

It's been several days of not tracking my food, and so far so good!

I already feel more like Buffy Summers.  My focus about food has shifted from "how many calories do I have left" to "I'm hungry, time to eat something that I love". 

Calories?  Who cares?

I'll share a bit of what I've been eating and how I've been exercising.  Not in a tracking sense, but just to share.

Today, I had my usual bowl of oatmeal mixed with peanut butter for breakfast.  I'm still eating this right now, actually.  I also brought along a banana and an applesauce, but I may not need those snacks this morning.  I didn't measure my oats or peanut butter, just mixed in what looked like a good amount.

I'm not sure what else I will be eating today, there is no plan!  But I bought some hummus yesterday, so that will probably be on the menu.  ;-)

Over the weekend, I walked and I biked.  Both felt amazing, and I tried to not think about the calories burned.  I'm probably not going to exercise today, because I won't have time which means that if I do it, it would definately be just for the calories.

And that's how ELATPBS is going.  I'll be ready to kick some butt soon.

"Giles, there are two things that I don't believe in: coincidence and leprechauns."
Buffy Summers, Season 3

No more tracking!

I'm going to start a no-tracking challenge.  This is the complete opposite of what I've done for years, so it feels kind of uncomfortable right now.  I'm going to go for a week first, and see how it goes.  Hopefully it will go so well that I'll want to continue.

When I say "no tracking" I'm talking about food and exercise.  No more recording everything I eat and every movement I do. 

No more calorie counting. 

If I'm going to ELATPBS, I have to do this. 

Buffy doesn't diet.

I'm not even 100% sure if I want to lose weight anymore, either.

My new goals are:

1. Learn to love the body that I have.
2. Not diet.  (no tracking my food or avoiding any foods because they are "bad")
3. Eat when hungry, don't eat when not hungry.
4. Exercise when I want to, and do fun exercises for the sake of feeling good, not for the sake of burning calories.
5. Get stronger, faster, and healthier.

 Doesn't that sound better than a list like this:

1. Lose weight.
2. Eat less, eat fewer calories.
3. Move more, burn more calories.

Come on, you know it does.

So this is day one of no tracking.  It feels weird.  I want to tell you what I've eaten, but that would be tracking.  See how tough it is for me?  I've been tracking my food on and off for over 10 years.  And those times when I wasn't tracking, I was binge-eating and depressed. 

Now I'm happy, not binge-eating, and while I'd still love to be a smaller pants size, I'm not worried about it so long as I'm healthy and happy. 

I'll leave you with one more Buffy picture and quote!

"Sure. We saved the world, I say we party. I mean, I got all pretty." -Buffy, Season 1

Sharing my food diary, Day 1!

oatmeal made with almond milk and peanut butter

strawberry applesauce

kidney beans with steamed veggies and evoo

melba toast

banana

Newtons fruit thins (3)

pretzels (8)

cherry tomatoes

baby carrots

Morningstar Farms chick'n grillers (2)

cheerios with almond milk

redvines

Total calories today according to My Fitness Pal- 1823

The only foods that I ate today that I wasn't really hungry for was the Redvines, which I ate mostly to keep myself awake for late-night paper writing! 

I'm going to share my food diary with you guys for a bit and see how it goes.  I'm definately still leaning towards giving up on calorie counting, but for now I think that I still need it for portion control.

I shared an awesome ehow article on Twitter and Facebook today, which explains how to lose weight without counting calories.  Here's the link- How to Lose Weight Without Counting Calories.