Thursday, June 16, 2005

Futile attempts at rule-following

I mostly laid around like a blob last night. Trying real hard to follow my rules but can't seem to get them all in order. Last night I failed all of them. I napped, went to bed late, woke up late, didn't exercise, and ate dessert. I'm still working on going without dessert for a week. However, today is a new day, and I'm optimistic about successfully abiding by my rules. I have written down "no dessert" in my calendar every day so I can cross it off each time I follow it. That will make me feel like I'm doing something even though it's succeeding in not doing something.
I'm also documenting my daily caloric intake and caloric output and averaging weekly totals. That way, I can't escape the reality of what I'm actually doing. So far, there has been 1 single day where my calorie output exceeded my input. Ugh. I'm averaging around 2300 calories/day. Seems like I'm still eating as if I were training for a triathlon even though I'm not.
I'm also logging all my training hours into an excel spreadsheet. That way, I can follow a plan and watch my progression. My goal is to get my base back up before starting to train for something. You can't do anything without a good base. It takes a long time and is the part athletes often forget. So I'll focus on this until things get better. Anyway, this "documenting everything" strategy is nice for me b/c I love lists and it lets me translate my work into words, which makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something tangible. It works as a small reward and reinforces my "good behavior."

1 comment:

Kevin Yates said...

I like the spreadsheet idea. In the past couple of weeks, I have often thought about creating a spreadsheet that will calculate my calories...as well as putting my exercise routine in black and white for me to see what I am accomplishing. I need to set a goal to figure out what my base needs to be.