July 4th

Happy Independence Day Everyone! Today's been pretty interesting-there's been ups and downs, which is funny because I usually don't expect that in one day, but I'm learning to roll with it :)

So, I've been doing some thinking, and looking at what I've been eating and how I've been exercising, and I realized that I'm not eating 1,200 calories a day, by ANY means. The closest I had to 1,200 was yesterday when I had 999 calories, according to myfitnesspal, and that wasn't the best. Today, it was 718, and that's after eating an extra 200 calories to bring that amount up. I'm glad I'm not stuffing my face with ice cream and bad foods to make that number go up, but I feel like I need to start making sure I'm eating every meal. Anything under 1,200 starts burning muscle and slows your metabolism, and I don't want that to happen. As great as the weight loss is, I don't want myself to be messed up over the long run.

Now, onto the food/exercise stuff.

Breakfast: I went to the gym this morning, so I didn't eat breakfast beforehand.

Snack: I had a Luna Bar-Nuts Over Chocolate after going to the gym, which tasted SO good :) I like this one a lot, and I'll definitely be buying more of these...after I finish the 10 in the refrigerator :)

Lunch: I didn't eat lunch because I couldn't eat after the Luna Bar.

Snack: I drank 8 oz. of Arnold Palmer Half-and-Half Sweet Tea and Pink Lemonade, which means I finally finished 1 can! I can't believe I used the world 'finally'. I could easily drink that container in less than an hour, but I separated it over a few days, which makes me feel AMAZING :)

Dinner: My dad, knowing how serious I am about this weight loss, made grilled chicken and some boiled squash for our 4th of July dinner. It was SO good, and not calorie-filled at all :)

Snack: Realizing that after exercising, I was still in the negative, I had an Activa Strawberries & Cereal yogurt, and post-workout 2, a Luna Bar-Peanut Butter Cookie flavor. These were really good choices, and I'm happy I have some snacks stocked up that I can enjoy when I'm hungry :)

Exercise: I went to the gym around 11, and first got on the Treadmill, burning over 100 calories. Then, I did a bunch of machines for about 30 minutes, and felt even stronger. To finish it up, I went on the Elliptical for 35 minutes, and burned 427 calories on level 8. I'm going to go back up to level 10, since I found level 8 a little too easy :) Then, after dinner, I headed down to the tennis courts, and went around the courts 30 times, the last 10 being in the pouring rain :)

Pros: Oh, get ready, this is going to be a long one :) 1. I'm SO happy that I was able to get to the gym today, before they closed at 1 for Independence Day. I was also happy that I burned almost 1,000 calories from exercising today-ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I know I see on The Biggest Loser (which I'm starting to watch for the first time ever tonight) that these people burn 4,000 calories, but I'm also doing this on my own, so I'm calling it a victory :) I also LOVE how I'm getting SO excited to exercise lately-I actually was excited to go outside and run at night, and the pouring rain didn't even stop me :)

Cons: I'm not happy that I can't seem to get over 1,200 calories, but I'm hoping to work on that tomorrow. I was also hoping that I could avoid a headache after not drinking coffee this morning, but it wasn't happening, so I decided to just drink a cup to avoid the migraine. Oh well, I'll try to work on that at some point :)

Overall, today was pretty fab, and I hope for a better day tomorrow :)