Then There Was the Weekend

I got off to a good start with my new plan. I was carefully measuring my food, counting calories and staying well under 2000 calories per day. For the first dinner on my new plan I pulled out a kitchen scale and started weighing each food item at the table. My sons gave me the strangest looks but didn’t say anything – at first. Then my youngest sons couldn’t hold it back anymore and blurted out, “what the heck are you doing Dad?” My sons now think I’m a big weirdo. They are embarrassed to sit next to me at our own private dinner table. Don’t they know their father is a scientist? They should know better.
During the week my weight came down to 173. On Wednesday I ran 10 miles and felt really good during and after the run. It’s been a long time since I’ve run that long of a distance. I felt so good after running it I ran another 10 miles on Thursday. However, for the last 2 or 3 miles I felt really weak, kind of like hitting the wall at mile 20 in a marathon. I think what was happening is that my calorie intake had been so low that I didn’t have much sugar in my blood to support fast long distance running. I was burning fat, which I want to do for loosing weight, but burning fat for energy doesn’t work well for fast running. I may need to boost my calories, in particular carbs, the night before I do my weekly long run. My wife likes spaghetti so that would be a good spaghetti night.
So things were looking great for my fist week, then there was the weekend. Not just any weekend, but a 3 day weekend with a snowboarding outing, watching the grandkids, and a big garage project. There were delivery pizzas, a trip to Fuddruckers, and more delivery pizzas. My father-in-law help me put insulation up in my garage. That was a big project that called for a couple of beers. I need to be a good host, you know! I didn’t want my grandkids to think I was weird like my sons do, so I ate what they ate. I did record everything, sometimes having to estimate. I averaged 2447 calories per day, missing my goal by 447 calories. With my running I figured I probably burned about the same amount, so I went nowhere this last week. Well, I did learn a lot.
I am not going to give up on my plan. I’ll need to find a better way to handle the weekends. I’ll just have to learn to say no!