Diet Fail

Three days past my deadline of "stop eating and start moving", and I am already failing. Why? Well, here are my excuses.

1. I am terrible at diets.

Or beer.

I'm always someone that says "never go on a diet! You're setting yourself up to fail! Just work on making healthier choices every day!" Then, not long after that, I do not heed my own advice and I do the exact opposite. And I fail.

I try to make healthy choices, but I tend to go through phases. I'll eat really well and exercise a lot for a few weeks, then I'll fall off the wagon and be an obese sloth for a bit. That could be an exaggeration. Making the switch to a healthier lifestyle (like, 90% healthy eating) has been difficult for me... but, who isn't it difficult for? Plus, once I "fall off the wagon" I tend to just throw caution to the wind and shove all of the food down my gullet. "Well, I already failed so why not FAIL HARDER?!"

Dreams really do come true.

2. It is summer.
And all I want to do is float in my raft, the USS Awesomesauce, with some sort of alcoholic beverage in the cup holder. I want to sit next to a lake. I want to sit on a beach. I want to sit in my yard and watch my mom make me giant-ass burgers.

Speaking of giant-ass burgers, not only do I want to sit on my ass next to some body of water but I also want to eat every single typical summer food item possible. It's like I'm coming out of hibernation from what seems like 9 months of New England winter and have finally reached my Utopian paradise filled with fruity drinks, burgers, hot dogs, BBQ, pasta salad, potato salad, lobster, ice cream, margaritas... etc. And I am on a mission to eat all of it. Anyone who has been to King Kone in Merrimack, NH, will know that you must consume as many ice cream cones as you can before summer ends.

Not only am I lazy and preoccupied with shoving my face with summer food, but it has been hot and really fucking humid. I can deal with the heat, no problem. I'm cold unless it's above 85. But the humidity... man. I referred to running through hot clam chowder in my last post, and that weather trend has not let up. Walking to the train in the morning (about 5-7 minutes, downhill) leaves me sweating. Do I have a gym membership? Why, yes, I do. But when I'm sitting in my apartment sweating my ass off just by simply existing the last thing I want to do is pull on some tight spandex and hop on the train to the gym, or, even worse, go outside for a run.

3. I am too focused on the numbers.
I'm up 3 pounds from my average (5 pounds above my lowest), and when people hear me say that they immediately want to punch me in the face. Rightfully so, I suppose. My logical brain knows that three pounds isn't that much (though it's about 2.5% of my body weight), but my illogical brain doesn't like to see the number. My logical brain knows that my BMI and body fat are well within the healthy range, as I had my friend measure me last night, but my illogical brain is still like THREE POUNDS THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SIT ON YOUR ASS. The gain could also be muscle weight. I've been focusing on my upper body  more - I did five REAL pullups, all in a row, last night (oooooooh aaaaaaaaaaah) - and the increase in amount of running/hiking/cycling could definitely build muscle.

Ironically, I tend to ignore the "good" numbers. I started running at the end of January because I was that bored. I didn't really think about how much I would be running, so I picked a random number out of the air and decided "it would be kind of cool if I ran 100 miles in a year". I joined a gym in February, and hit that goal pretty quickly.  I'll recap my "good" numbers in an attempt to make myself feel better about life.

January: 6 miles (I started at the very end of January)
February: 12.23 miles - actually not that bad considering it was like 20 degrees for most of February and I was running outside.
March: 12.25 miles
April: 46.26 miles of running, 1.57 miles of biking
May: 30.1 miles of running
June: 20.33 mile of running, 40.42 mile of biking
** I didn't count hiking miles

So, it's obvious that I've definitely made improvements over the months but even as I was writing I said "damn, I ran HALF as much last month as I did in April." You can see the hotter the month the less I wanted to be inside at the gym or running outside in the humidity.

4. My routine changed.

Drinking on the beach is much more fun than running.

I think April was such a good month for me because I was getting into the swing of things at work, I got through my bout with mono at the end of March, and I had my routine down pat. I was working from 9-2, so I would get out at 2 and go to the gym on my way home. It was a good time frame; not too long after eating that I was starving but not too soon after eating that I was bursting at the seams. My schedule changed for the summer, so now I get out at 4. I was usually starting to get hungry and the gym would fill up with the after-work crowd. I started going home a lot more. I want to park my ass on the beach at every opportunity.

Then my schedule changed even MORE when I got my second job at REI (which I am very, very excited about, but more on that another time). I don't know what my schedule will end up being like, but for the past two days I've come to job # 1 from 11-4, then straight to training sessions until 8:30 or 9. So, either I wake up a few hours earlier and get a workout in or I skip it altogether. I have opted for the latter. The schedule change has meant adjusting my eating schedule, too. I have been hopping around from my apartment, to NH, to friend's places so often that I haven't really gone food shopping in a while, meaning I have no (healthy) food to cook and bring with me to work. Working through lunch and dinner often means eating something small, snacking all day, or waiting until I get home and eating late at night (sooo bad for you).


Well, hopefully once things settle down with my schedule a little more I'll get back into the routine of working out more frequently. If I can find it in myself to stop being a gypsy, or at least being a smarter gypsy, then I can stop eating out all the time and make myself some healthier meals. Let's face it, I'm not reaching my summer goal of hiking Mt. Washington by sitting on my ass eating cupcakes and drinking beer!... that would be nice, though.