Accidental Maintenance

I'm going to starting calling a plateau "Accidental Maintenance" from now on... 

I've always heard people on here talk about how difficult maintenance can be. Making a permanently change to one's habits and lifestyle. It's really easy to slip back into old habits, especially when things like stress, family and friends with a love of food (and drink), and being busy with work get in the way. 

Well, apparently I'm awesome at maintenance. I've been pretty much exactly 150 lbs since New Years, dipping below to 149 a few days, and I had one week were I was up a few pounds and then it was gone as fast as it came. But, I have a confession...

I'm not perfect. I know, it sucks doesn't it?

There's a few reasons I've been so good at maintenance, and it's conscious decisions that I've made. I've been nibbling and snacking and eating a chocolate here or there, not recording it. But it's definitely enought to add 100-200 calories a day. That's a lot when I'm shooting for 1500. I haven't been working out on the weekends, except for an active day like walking around DC or a large mall (I did hike one day with my boyfriend). And I've been taking more rest days during the week than I should. So, basically, I've figured out my body's secret to maintenance. I can do just enough to stay exactly where I want to. There's one problem tho...

I DON'T WANT TO STAY AT 150! I'm only 5'2.5", 150 isn't my goal. Getting somewhere in the 130s is!

So I think it's time to get my lazy butt into gear. I've started to fall into the winter doldrums. It's easy to stay inside when I'm tired and it's cold out. It's easy to grab a piece of Valentine's Day chocolate or a cupcake. I still manage things in moderation, but it's not moderate enough to get the scale moving again. And the worst is the exercise. I've gone from 5-6 days a week to more like 3. And I know some of that is because I can't push myself as hard as I want to with the exercise asthma. Now that I've realized that's the problem, I almost don't want to work out until I have my inhaler (doctor's appt on Monday morning!). But I know I have to, I can still do lighter cardio without having breathing issues. I just can't run.

So, maybe I'm writing all this to make me feel like less of a failure, even though I know this isn't failing! It's a success to stay the same weight thru the holidays and Valentine's Day and this blah freezing cold winter we've been having in Virginia. It's just I need something to kick my butt back into gear. All of you on here help a ton, when I don't feel like pushing you help me to find some motivation. I just need to find some renewed energy myself. I'm hoping the inhaler does it. I'm excited to run, to really push myself at the gym. I think it's what my body needs to lose the last bit of weight. It's not gonna give it up willingly, pushing myself is all I've got.

So new things to focus on starting Monday (I know my Georgetown Cupcakes that I won on Facebook are being delivered today so being an angel will be impossible... haha, and I'll get my inhaler hopefully).

- No more snacking on things I don't log. If it goes in my mouth, it's going in my food diary. Those little snacks probably really add up and I don't realize how much.

- Get my lazy butt to the gym 4 times a week AT LEAST once I have my inhaler, and do something active on the weekends (at least one workout). Or when it gets nice enough out (and enough daylight) get into running outside again.

- Stop eating so many carbs with my dinner. I need to food shop for some salad or something to eat instead of a sweet potato. My attempts last night at a low carb dinner results in one that had 40g of carbs... fail.

- Keep the treats and indulgences to a minimum. Nice dinner with boyfriend OK, random lunch with coworkers where I eat half my calories that day is NOT.  

- Don't stress... It's hard to keep my cool when I'm in a legit plateau (or accidental maintenance as I'm calling it now). I didn't lose any inches this morth... no good! But I'm fixing that!