Stir Crazy!

Ack! I hate being sidelined with this hip injury! I'm going mental with all this time off.

I think I've figured out why I like to exercise so much: it helps to curb my urge to eat out of boredom; it makes me feel less guilty when I do eat because I know I am burning off calories; what I do eat feels more fulfilling because I'm actually hungry from exercising.

So, after four days of inactivity, I'm starting to go stir crazy. I feel undernournished because I'm not able to eat as many calories as I'm used to - only about 400-600 fewer, but that's still a fair amount. Jeez, come the weekend, I can easily burn an additional 1,000 calories on a long run. I actually feel physically hungry (in a deprived kind of way), which is a different kind of hunger I feel after exercising.

I've been following the calorie recommendations made by Nutr!diary.com, so I know I've been eating enough, but what I've found is that I struggle to take in enough calories on the days I exercise, and struggle not to consume too many on the days that I don't. I just can't figure it out.

And the scales have not been cooperating lately, either. I weigh myself twice per week - Mondays and Fridays - and as of Monday's weigh-in I'm only half a pound down from where I started. Tomorrow is another weigh-in day, so we'll see what the number is looking like.

I've been really good about sticking to my Boot Camp plan. I can almost count on one hand the number of times I've "cheated" in the last two(plus) weeks:

I had one sip of wine last Friday night when I was making stew for dinner. I tasted it before using it to cook with. The rest of the bottle has been sitting on my counter - untouched - for the last week. I've had no other alcohol since Sunday, September 11th.

I had a slice of cake last week at a going-away party for a colleague. I also had one oatmeal-raisin cookie at another going-away event this week.

I skipped a couple of workouts, mostly because of scheduling conflicts. I still managed to work out a minimum of five days a week, and on some days I had two workouts (until this week, that is).

I have not been successful in eliminating refined carbs from my diet. Many of the frozen entrees I eat have noodles made with white flour or white rice. I also had mashed potatoes the other night.

So, I don't know what else I have to do differently to see some movement on the scales!

Most of my colleagues are golfing tomorrow afternoon so I think I'll leave work early and head to the gym for a workout. My left arm is a bit sore from the tetanus shot I got on Monday. It feels like I've been punched in the arm. I just really need to move and get my blood pumping. Even though I was sore, I felt pretty good at floor hockey on Tuesday night.

Wish me luck!