Success!

Today is Thursday January 28th, 2016 and I have been binge free for 7 days. This also marks one week since I decided to start this blog. Thank you to everyone who has read, followed, and liked my posts. It is a little nudge of encouragement that tells me that this was the right move. If I can give even one person encouragement and inspiration from this blog, the whole thing is worth it to me.

One week may not seem like a very big milestone for some people, but for me getting to the 1-week point is a big deal. In the past six months or so I have been able to focus on an eating plan for about 4-5 days or so and then I would binge. Rinse and repeat. An even bigger deal will be when I hit 14 days.

This is what success has looked like for me this week:

1. I have started tracking all of my food. I have not been overly strict with my calorie allowance, but everything I eat I am tracking. I am using My Fitness Pal, so if you’re on there feel free to look me up (sarabeth414).
2. I have navigated through two work related lunches, an office birthday, and a meal out with friends. The meal with friends was pizza, so I feel like I get bonus points for not bingeing on pizza.
3. I have cut back drastically on my one extremely hard to kick habit – Diet Coke. This week I have averaged about one can every other day. Which is quite the reduction from several diet cokes a day. It would not be uncommon for me to not consume any water in the day and my only liquid consumption would be Diet Coke.
4. Speaking of water, I am drinking it….a lot of it. I think I am getting extra activity just by going to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so. I have a large 30 oz cup that I keep at my desk at work. I like a lot of ice, so I am guessing each time I fill that cup up it is 24 oz. I try to fill it up 3 times during my work day.
5. I have been consistent with my physical activity. I took one day off this week and that day off I feel like my body really needed. Lately my heels and my calves have been bothering me when running on the treadmill and doing the elliptical/arc trainer. I am going to get into a habit of stretching; however, I think it might be more related to my shoes that are now a year old and probably need replacing

In addition to being binge free for a week I have also lost 5 pounds. This is kind of unreal to me. I am NOT cutting back big time on calories (1930 per day), but this is a similar weight loss number that I would see when I was eating 1200-1400 calories a day. I am really trying to not become a slave to the scale again, but the weight loss is a goal that I have and I think that a scale can be a tool used in weight loss.

I am excited for my success this far and am excited to build upon the foundation that has been set.