"THE Plan", such that it is

Day 2 of “Come on Kevin, stop being a slacker” and all goes well.

Wednesdays my wife works from home and gets to sleep in a bit so I take them off so I don’t wake her any earlier than necessary. So, no running for me today but that’s OK. I have been taking 2 days a week off running and this is the usual one.

My eating is going well but let’s face it, it’s rather easy, or easier the first week. My motivation is high and it takes a whole week or two before the eating part really starts to eat at me (hehehe, I’m here all week folks).

I’ve been asked about my eating plan so I thought I would throw that out there and ask for suggestions/criticism.

I just can’t get myself to keep a detailed log of what I eat. I’m very good at doing it during the day while I am work. I use My Fitness Pal to track and log that. I like it a lot. You should check it out at www.myfitnesspal.com. You may find it helpful.

First of all, I need to determine how many calories I should shoot for each day. According to the tools at My Fitness Pal, to lose 1.5 lbs. per week, at my current weight, I need an intake of 1360 calories/day. Sounds kinda low to me but what the heck do I know? Good place to start.

So, my plan is to log my eating and exercise during the day. That will give me a very good idea of what I need to do in the evening.

Further, I really like the idea of eating the same foods for breakfast, snacks and lunch. Pick healthy and tasty foods and eat them day after day. It makes it a no brainer. No wondering if it’s good for me or what the calorie count is. So with that in mind, here’s my eating plan for weekdays along with some eating rules I have implemented:

• Breakfast is oatmeal. Calories= 200

• Morning and afternoon snacks are Greek yogurt, Calories = 130

• Turkey sandwich on wheat bread and a banana for lunch. Calories = 300

• NO eating anything after dinner. Nothing.

• No sweets. None. Not a couple of jelly beans. Nothing.

• Lots of water.

• Run at least 5 days per week.

Any more EASY suggestions? Don’t be shy but unless they are easy, and to me the ones above are easy, I just won’t stick to it.

And here’s something cool about using running to lose weight. Check out these numbers….

From what I listed above, when I leave work I will have consumed 760 calories. That’s actually 56% of my daily allowed total. Not too bad since my day/eating should be half over. BUT, when I run for an hour at an 11.5 minute pace, I burn 776 calories! So, in other words, on the days I run, I have all of my daily calories to consume for dinner in the evenings! It’s like I haven’t eaten at all until I sit down at the dinner table. Pretty cool huh?

Just THINKING about this little item above helps me get my butt outta bed for an early morning run. And I’ll take any help I can get!

There ya have it. On paper this makes sense. I may fail miserably during the execution, but at least I am semi-scientific about it. Beats the heck out of “I’ll just watch what I eat and exercise more and the weight will drop off”. If that works for you, more power to you, and I hate you! ;-)

Whatcha think?