I Heart Cheese

I had my first wedding dress fitting on Tuesday. It went pretty well. I felt comfortable that the seamstress was going to make the changes that I wanted. The only thing that troubled me was that it was pretty darn snug in the mid-section. I figured that I would be be down a couple pounds by wedding day just because I am doing a triathlon a couple weeks before the wedding and so we ordered the appropriate size dress. Well, I can get the dress on and zipped easily...I can even sit down in it...but it's not very comfortable. And I'm all about comfort. So my amazing seamstress gave me the deadline of June 29 to decide if I need to have the dress let out. It's not a big deal to let it out (there's enough fabric to do so) and I wasn't paranoid about her having to let the dress out because my a$$ is too big. I just didn't want to have to worry about (and pay for) the additional work needed to let the dress out.


That was on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, I had myself in a complete panic. I don't want to look fat in the wedding pictures. I don't want to be uncomfortable all day. I don't want to faint on the alter because my dress is so tight.

Ok, pity party is over now. I'm going to take control over that wedding dress and my squishy mid-section. I'm not so concerned about losing pounds. I mostly want to tone up and thin out the middle. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to drop some poundage and according to those charts at the doctor's office, I still have about 20 pounds to lose. My own doctor (who is an athlete) told me that my genetic make up will make it very challenging to lose that though (don't forget that I am up to challenges from time to time.)



So this is what has gone down since my freak out on Wednesday. A friend sent me a wedding meal plan that I intend to incorporate bits and pieces of (making mine a little more veggiesauraus and with more calories because of my training schedule). I also shared very personal information with my tri coach (height, weight, astrological sign) and he helped figure what my calorie intake should be to either maintain weight or lose weight, based on my current activity level.

2259 calories/day to maintain my current weight.
1759 calories/day to lose about 1 pound per week.

That doesn't sound so bad.....riiiight? The challenge is eating the right combination of foods because I'm craving nothing but carbs and Dairy Queen (because that has it's own category, right?). I'm going to say those cravings are ALL because of my concurrent triathlon and marathon training. :) Lots of carbs (especially those tasty simple, white carbs) aren't exactly good for losing weight.

I've never counted calories. Ever. Even when I dropped 30 pounds a couple years ago. I read labels sometimes and had a decent idea of how many calories are in my snacks, but I've never added up a whole day. Yesterday was the first time. Maybe not the best day to do it considering I did 2 workouts (60 minutes in the pool in the morning and a 3 mile run/walk in the evening). That makes me a hungry beast. Yesterday was also my planned "eating out" day. I packed my lunch and ate breakfast at home every other day but due to my schedule this week, I picked Thursday as my day to not pack a lunch....excuses excuses.

I've still been tracking my food (even though I haven't posted it on here in awhile) and my steps (I'm almost to the company set goal and we're still about 3 weeks from the end!) but now I'm going to add up the calories for at least a couple days.

So here is the ugly truth of yesterday:

5:30 am- English Muffin with Olivio spread (180 calories)
8:00 am- Tim Horton's plain bagel with vegetable cream cheese (380 calories) with a small Pepsi (100 calories)
12:30 pm- Subway- 6" BMT on wheat with provolone, lettuce, green peppers, oil and vinegar (450 calories) with Baked Chips (130 calories)
4:40 pm- Yogurt Raisins (60 calories)
7:30 pm- Grilled Cheese (crusty bread, muenster and provolone cheeses) (565 calories-this took some research/guestimating since the bread didn't have a label), about 8 baby carrots (30 calories), a fuji apple (80 calories) and 4 slices colby jack cheese with reduced fat Triscuits (170 calories!! holy cow, that sucks. This is one of my favorite snacks).

Can you tell I was STARVING by the time we ate dinner? Obviously I know where my eating goes downhill. That totals 2145 calories. Which means I might lose an ounce each week. No wonder I've been stuck. I'm interested to see what today's calorie count will be since I'm not working out and I'm not a hungry beast. I am starting an 18-hour Relay for Life tonight so it's going to be a situation where making smart food choices will be a challenge. The Pilot is in charge of bringing some snacks for us so we'll see what he comes up with.

I also want to add a disclaimer that I don't plan to make this a weight loss blog. I'm saying it right here that I will not become a crazy bridezilla and start weighing my grapes and taking everything to the extreme. I just want my wedding dress to be comfy and I want to look nice in it! I'm also going to put it out there that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to eating. I can coach you to do a marathon and fuel yourself during a marathon but other than that, I have no clue what I'm doing. Feel free to give me feedback though!