Put the candy down and back away... slowly

That was me last night and I couldn't be prouder of myself.

I did so well on my calories yesterday and kept everything very healthy. I had one small chocolate spice muffin that my BFs mom sent home with me last weekend (it's a miracle they've lasted this long!) with one of my "milk" shakes for a pre-run snack.  But then as I sat down to finish watching season 2 of Vampire Diaries I was feeling snacky.  My thoughts were that I had room in my calorie budget for a couple hundred calories of snack, but I'd already had my treat for the day. I actually had my hand on a bag of candy (I pre-portioned 190 calories of candy into baggies). And then, I thought to myself.... "Do I really want this?" and my next thought, "How will I feel if I eat this and the scale goes up tomorrow?"

And voila, the answers were,  "No, I didn't really want that food" and two, "I would feel horrible and guilty and beat myself up if I ate it and didn't lose because of it." So, I just watched my show, and then my stomach grumbled. And I thought, "okay, now you are really hungry and it's only 7:30, so what can you eat that is in your calorie range and you actually want?"

In comes a new healthy snack recipe that I think I am in love with - sweet and spicy popcorn. Air popped popcorn has very few calories, has a load of fiber, and makes a ton. Just two tablespoons of unpopped kernels gives you four cups popped. 4 cups of air popped popcorn is only 121 calories. In microwave popcorn land 124 calories only gets you a mini-bag and it's still got fat poured on it. Anyway, I had a huge bowl of my new popcorn concoction which got me through most of my show. And yeah, my stomach grumbled a little later on, but by then it was late and almost time for bed. And I personally think you should be a little bit hungry at bedtime if you're looking to lose weight. Afterall you aren't burning too many calories sleeping, and the last thing you want is to burn off the food in your stomach, or energy in your blood sugar, instead of stored fat. (Though, I read somewhere that a protein like cottage cheese an hour before bed, could help you burn fat at night... so, what do I know?)

Today is going well so far, I slept in because I have the day off of work, got up and did my last day of Level 2 on my Ripped in 30 DVD. I definitely know I have regained my strength. I can actually manage a set and a half of crow pushups on my feet instead of my knees (I can't go down as far as when on my knees, but I'm working on it). And I can last a little longer doing the plank position cardio moves - mountain climbers, plank jacks, and squat thrusts - before modifying.

I got the Couch to 5K Pro app free from Amazon the other day - it's only $2 normally, but a deal is a deal. And it's nice because instead of tone signaling your change to run or walk, a voice tells you which to do. So you can't really get off track.  I was slack with running at the end of semptember and then with being sick, I wasn't running as long as normal. But the weather is nice right now, and the first day it's not great weather I'm going to find a gym so I can keep it up through the winter.  I am determined to do a 5k on Nov 19.

The great part about today is that when I woke up and looked in the mirror, it was the first time in a long time, that I could see the old me coming back. Underneath this layer of fat, I could see abs. I know that I lost a bunch of water weight this week. I didn't realize, but there was tons of sodium in some of my organic soup lunches, and I wasn't balancing out with enough potassium. Now that that's gone, I can see my progress a little better.  And I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. I have hope.