Psychotron - Daily Diary 30

I saw Nick's posts and it occurred to me that I hadn't posted in a while, even though I said I'd try to post more frequently. Sorry about that. Back to it.

4/28/11

Calories: 1,590
Activities: walk
Points: 4

I had planned to try to have a kick ass day on Thursday, since I knew the weekend was always a wild card as far as calories. I did pretty well, could've maybe done better, but well enough to call it a very good day.

4/29/11

Calories: 2,020
Activities: walk
Points: 2

I was at a pretty good pace leaving work, and even with Chipotle on the menu for the evening, I had planned out a fairly reasonable burrito (670 calories). But after the Capitals played crummy and lost Game 1 against the Lightning, I tried to snack away the blues. Really, 2,020 calories is a perfectly good day, but breaking the 2,000 calorie barrier means I lost a point. I worry that this point system might not be a good motivator, based on my personal sentiments whenever I think about it.

4/30/11

Calories: 2,390
Activities: short walk
Points: 1

As expected, Saturday was a little dicey on the calorie front. I went down to DC for Mark's engagement party, and helped myself to a hamburger, a chicken kebab, half a slice of cake, and plenty of potato chips and Miller Lite. Not eating hardly anything outside of the event kept me pretty safe, so that was good.

I didn't get much walking in. I mean, we walked to and from the party from the Union Station Metro, and I walked for about 15 minutes when I got home, but it didn't feel like dedicated walking time. More like moseying.

In case you weren't keeping track, that total put me at 16 points for the week, two points short of my original goal of 18 points. Here's my analysis of it: aren't these goals supposed to offer some kind of positive reinforcement, not just the call to action from coming up short? Even my 4 point day felt like a semi-failure because I was just 190 calories from picking up another point.

I averaged 2,057 calories per day last week, compared to 2,007 the week before. So besides being mostly a disaster for my confidence/motivation, it also doesn't seem to have offered much in the way of progress. As a result, I'm scrapping it. We're going back to the everyday goal of 2,200 calories, since that seemed most effective.

5/1/11

Calories: 2,385
Activities: walk

A doubly rough day. We had a family barbecue at my mom's house, which is the kind of event I sometimes have control problems with, as you might remember from the previous day. After that, the Caps lost a heartbreaker in overtime. Honestly, only having 2,385 calories on Sunday was pretty impressive.

5/2/11

Calories: 1,720
Activities: none

Back on track, just a good day. The one thing that I'm a little displeased with, though, is that I seem to be getting too many of my calories from snacky foods. Like, it's nice that I'm able to portion out my potato chips and cookies, thanks to the help of some 100 calories packs, but I know it'd be better if I just had regular food, like meats and vegetables and grains. Something to improve upon.

Oh, the lack of activity last night was due to a shortage of white socks. I even started out on a walk, but I was slipping around inside my shoes with my black socks on. Don't worry, laundry day was yesterday, so we're good to go.

Looking Forward

It's pretty cool that Gargantuar signed up for that 5K. I was extended an invitation to do it as well, but there seemed to be pressure to "run" it, and I'm simply not there yet. Am I doing well? Sure, and I'm happy to say that I feel like I'm having an easier time walking, and working in little spurts of jogging. But there's no way I could run for a quarter-mile straight, let alone 3+ miles. I feel like, with so many people looking to "run" the distance, I'd feel disappointed in myself for ending up so far behind the rest of the participants. Maybe next year.

I also said that I'd try to offer more opportunities for people to comment/contribute to the blog, so here we go:

What are you bringing to the party on Saturday? :)

As an FYI, I'll be buying burgers, hot dogs, buns, condiments, paper plates, napkins, and a couple cases of beer. I've also got some bottles of liquor handy. Things we'll need: more beer, soda, snacks, desserts, and whatever else you think people will enjoy. Saturday's supposed to be 70 degrees and overcast, so it should be a nice evening for a cookout.

And yes, I've got a whiffle ball set.