This weekend

Howdy readers.

This weekend was baaad! Apparently the extra accountability has not helped. I only tallied my calories/food consumed from Friday evening through today- 10 minutes ago (at 10:30 on Sunday night). *Sorry CALERIE study coordinators!!!

First I will tell you a summary of what each day was like then I will discuss what I think I can do differently/what is going to be an ongoing problem...

Friday: ~1630 calories

What went wrong here... not calories, but quality of food/lack of making planned food decreased my satisfaction with my food and made me feel bad about my food choices.
The problem day began with the fact that I did not eat breakfast. I had a dentist appt and it did not go well, so by 7pm I had only eaten about 600 calories. My mouth pain was mostly gone and I was starving! Of course I had plans to make a yummy soup, watch a scary movie, and relax- but I needed to purchase the ingredients for the soup and it is always a bad idea to go to the supermarket when you are so so hungry. It was 8pm by the time I got home, so I did not feel like cooking for 2hrs before dinner would be ready, so TE and I ate Annie's Organic Mac&Cheese and garlic bread (where were the veggies?!). I ended the day 30 calories under, but it was bad food, and I am not sure about my recall...
Lesson: be realistic about cooking endeavors to cut down on the disappointment/satisfaction problem

Saturday: 2110 calories (!!)

Ugh. The major problem here was alcohol. If I had not had any, I would have been fine with the food calories. I did go hiking for 2+ hrs, but I doubt it burned the extra 600 calories I ate.
Lesson: Limit drinking calories. Go back to 1 or 2 drinks per day. Have lots of seltzer and diet sodas on hand.

Sunday: 2110 calories (!!)

Ugh. Ugh. Again alcohol calories along with not cooking for myself calories. TE and I ate a big breakfast and went out to run a bunch of errands- when we were finished we were both hungry and far from home. To avoid low blood sugar battles, we decided to stop and get a quick bite to eat. I snacked lightly while he ate lunch and I felt OK about it all until we went to our friend's house for dinner. With all the rushing around getting ready for dinner, I did not eat the yogurt and bran cereal as I had planned so I ate many more pre-dinner snacks than I would have liked. Again the calories add up much quicker than you think when alcohol (and cheese!) is involved. Next time I will bring a bottle of seltzer with me along with the bottle of wine...
Lesson: Remember to bring with me when out: granola bars, yogurt, water, peanut butter sandwiches, anything to keep hunger away while running errands/away from home.

Well- I guess I learned a lot. I wonder though, why now? Almost 9 months in and I am just now starting to have problems. Maybe it is the season: more dinner parties, irresistible baked items, and festive drinking. Or maybe the novelty is wearing off, or my motivation is waning, or I am acting overly confident, or maybe... it is just laziness. Whatever it is- I need to figure out how to beat it. How to overcome my mental block. I feel like if I can do that, my future success with CR, beyond this study, will be that much better.

Now how to ID the problem and fix it.... Last time it helped me to go through my folder of study hand-outs (I remember one that deals with problems on weekends), I think I will try that and also try to read more scientific papers showing the benefits of calorie restriction on health and aging.

And I will keep blogging this week. I need whatever help I can get!