Lots of exercise!

I am trying to be more active overall for my health and energy levels and hoping that weight loss is a convenient side perk. :) I have about 15-20 lbs to lose, but I also want to get more fit, more toned, and stronger. I'd be OK with a smaller pant size even without much weight loss (my goal is at least 5-10) if it were because of muscle gain/fat loss. Basically, I was an active child and in my early teens. Then I started college and became much more sedentary at which point I also developed and was diagnosed with anorexia. It almost ruined my life an I lost way too much weight. After outpatient and therapy I maintained a still underweight body, and was still restricting, but in a much less obvious way. Eventually (especially when I got to grad school) I couldn't keep up the 1100-1200 calories a day (DUHHH!) and I started binging frequently. I quickly gained 40 lbs and stopped caring. In fact, I didn't mind being slightly overweight, except that my energy levels weren't great and I knew I didn't look my best. So recently, I decided to take charge of my health and my weight by adding a lot more exercise to my days. I try to work out for *at least* 30 minutes a day; most days it's over 60. I do a blend of heavy lifting and cardio. Plus I am trying new activities like yoga, and going back to gymnastics. I'm pretty sure some weight has already come off and I'm going to continue with what I'm doing (~1600-2000 calories/day) because it seems to be working. I am much happier now, because I really don't worry about food that much on the whole. Most nights I go out with friends and have one of two beers. I eat too much chocolate, and sometimes too much food overall. Yeah, they're extra calories, but that's LIFE. And I missed too much of that during my ED/DE years!

OK, with that said, I have really been enjoying working out A LOT, knowing that I'm also fueling myself properly. I did a 10 minute slow run on the treadmill to warm up, then about 20 minutes of leg weights, and then about 55 minutes of the Expresso bikes. I'm fairly certain I burned about 550 on the bike alone, not including the other things. And tonight, I went to an adult gymnastics class from 7:30-8:45. I was pretty high intensity the whole time, so that was probably another 300-400 there (I'm really not sure). Anyway, I'm pretty amazed with myself, knowing there is a realistic possibility that I burned 1100 calories through exercise. That is VERY APPROXIMATED THOUGH! :)

And my lovely food. I started with a carrot

and my usual bowl of oatmeal. Basically the same toppings:

1/2 C oats, water w/ a splash of milk
1 TBSP ground flax
1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
2 TBSP (?) trail mix
1 vanilla honey energy chunk (60 cals)
1 TBSP (?) Peanut butter


plus coffee:


I kept taking little tiny bits of more PB on the spoon and might very well have had another 2 TBSPs, but hey--it's healthy fat, right? :) And some of it accompanied another carrot:

Later, I had the rest of a cherry pomegranate Clif nectar bar,

plus several handfuls of this trail mix:


and an apple with still more PB:

Some days are just PB days, ya know? OK, so A LOT of my days are PB days! :)

And then I went out to run a bunch of errands and along the way I ate at Chocolate Almond Fudge Clif bar (250):

After my first workout, I treated myself to the Whole Foods hot bar! It was only $8.70 give or take a few pennies!

I had:

-Chicken Tikka Masala
-Some sort of Indian tofu (curried)
-Buffalo tofu (this was awesome--had blue cheese and buffalo sauce; a little too oily, but still great!)
-Curried broccoli/cauliflower
-Vegan "beef" something
-Seitan chili (also vegan)


And after that, before gymnastics, I was craving chocolate so I had 2 Clif Z bars (chocolate chip is definitely my favorite flavor!)

and this:

Goodnight!