Finding Other Outlets

Today was a pretty good day, although it started out a little rough. I was in a pretty bad mood for most of the day. A lot of different things going on, but overall, I was just annoyed and frustrated. I was tempted to use food as a solution to this, but instead I went on a cleaning spree - dishes, organizing things, cleaning the stove, sweeping, spot scrubbing the kitchen floor, and vacuuming. I didn't plan on any of this. I was just going to do some dishes and before I knew it, I had attacked the whole apartment. Unfortunately, I didn't really feel any better when I was done. I was planning to go running in the evening, but as the it got closer to sundown, I was really not feeling it. I went out to run a couple of errands, and decided when I got back, I was just going to put on a movie and "maybe" go run later. I figured that the housecleaning probably burned a decent number of calories, so maybe I didn't really need to go running, too.... One of my errands was printing out some motivational pictures I found online to put up on my wall. When I got home, I cut them out and put them up. It turned out looking a lot better than I expected, and totally worked! By the time I was done - I was motivated to go work out. So I did. The weather was awesome again - I definitely LOVE running in the evenings. I went my normal 4.6 miles, and ran about as much of it as I usually do. Maybe a little more. But I guess I was running faster than normal, because I finished in just under 50 minutes instead of an hour. It felt really easy and I felt guilty for finishing early, so I went another mile! Half running and half walking. I was quite proud of myself. :)

I had a good day as far as eating was concerned. I woke up really wanting pancakes. So I went to the store and found a pancake mix made from whole wheat flower and whole oats. It was made with all natural, whole ingredients and only 130 calories for two small pancakes, so I figured I would give it a try. Unfortunately, when it comes to syrup, the only choices are either really high in calories or processed sugar substitutes. I chose the latter because I figured the pancakes were already going to be a little bit higher in calories than my normal breakfast. I ended up having four small pancakes with 1/4 cup of syrup and a cup of skim milk. I felt perfectly full and satisfied afterward, and I didn't think about food for at least two hours later, which is really good for me. Even then, I wasn't very hungry, so I just ate some baby carrots. For lunch I had the rest of my spaghetti squash with some sauteed mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and fresh basil. Quite good. I had a glass of milk after my workout, and then for dinner, I had a ground turkey burger (no bun) with grilled onions, tomatoes, and some spicy mustard. Delicious!

When I ran my errands earlier in the day, I went by the grocery store and decided to get some 100 calorie popcorn, 100 calorie chocolate covered pretzels, and some M&Ms. I was planning to come home to watch a movie and I was still feeling crappy at that point, so I figured maybe it could be kind of "healthy" emotional eating. After I worked out though, I felt a million times better. But I was really low in my calories for the day, because I just hadn't thought that much about food, so I ended up having one bag of popcorn and some of the M&Ms. I figured if I'm going to splurge, one or two 100 calorie snacks isn't a bad way to do it.

I'm feeling pretty good about this right now. I did a lot of thinking on my run and I'm just going to try to stay really focused over the next weeks and months. This is the first time in a while that I've felt like I can really get to where I want to be.

Here's a picture of my "motivational collage." I love it!

Good night!