[prepping]

I've had a revelation! For all of you, like me, that are old pro's when it comes to knowing exactly what you should be eating, portion sizes, and all that fun stuff but still find it difficult to lose -- then I have a mindblower for you!

Here it is... start from scratch. I swear, this probably sounds almost annoying to some because I certainly have gone back to the drawing board enough times as I've been trying to control my weight. But, over the last 1.5 years I have instead found that I've gained 5-8 lbs total. Now THAT is annoying because as far as I was concerned, I was being pretty darn good!

Of course I knew I needed to cut back on social drinking, and I knew I needed to work out more, so that nag in the back on my head kept blaming those weaknesses for the complete lack of weightloss. And it had gotten to the point recently where I was positively upset as I have been good for the last month and have lost a total of 0.2 lbs. WTF?!

So last night I decided to take the advice that you see on here all over the place (notice I have been around since 2008 and have never done this), I found an online calorie counter and plugged in every bite, lick, taste, etc that I had over the day. When I started, it said I needed 1350 calories/day to start losing. Sure, I thought that was reasonable and that I'd have no problem whatsoever putting everything in and having it come to around that. I've done an average count of my calories plenty times afterall.

Imagine my surprise when I found that I had gone over... by 563 calories! So I'm having an extra 2815 calories during the weekdays (and who knows what on the weekends). No fricken wonder I've gained 5-8 lbs in the last year and a half when I've been attempting to lose weight! Turns out that the main culprit is a healthy protein shake that I make for myself each day. I was underestimating the calories by about 250 and also not being diligent with actual measurements of what I was eating otherwise.

So now I am absolutely excited about February! I FINALLY know what I have been doing wrong! As soon as I saw the number 563 I felt the cloud of frustration immediately float away as I now have a logical reason as to why I am not losing weight. It is such a relief!

I have pledged to myself that starting today (at a weight of 187.8), I will diligently track my calories to make sure I'm now on the right track again, and I will be strength training 3 times a week (along with yoga once a week and spinning if possible) with a main focus of being aware how my body feels and how my clothes fit. I will not be stepping back on the scale until February 28th and will adjust my plans as necessary at that time.

I'm pumped! So for any of you that are looking for the motivation to get going because whatever you're doing doesn't seem to be working, well it might just be a good idea to start from scratch. (not saying that calorie counting is the definate way to go, it's just what has worked in my case)

And congrats to all that made it this far in the post! This was quite longer than I had intended. I'm just so happy and didn't want to leave out the details.

oh, and btw, for the actual goal of calories, I'm just using it as a guide to see what works for me. Even if I should aim for over/under 1350, I know for a fact that the 1900+ that I consume on a typical day is far too much for my size and activity level.