Friday 1 July 2011

The Domino Effect

Yesterday was a toughie.  Felt really demotivated from the get-go and wanted to eat lots and lots of bad things.  Temptation was thrown in my path by an email at 10.30 announcing the arrival of homemade tiramisu in the office kitchen.  I know if I just sit at my desk, there'll be none left for me in just a short while.  Just need to keep sitting at my desk...... did not eat any tiramisu.  RESULT.

Then it was lunchtime and I really didn't want to go to the gym.  And this was when the domino effect began.  I sat at my desk and pondered the option of just not going.  This led me to ponder the possibility that despite having brought a healthy lunch to the office, I could use my lunchbreak (newly liberated by NOT going to the gym) to go and buy something yummy from M&S.  A nice sandwich. And maybe some crisps.  And then maybe some sweets as well. And..... hang on a minute, do you see what happened there?  My thought process had leapt from a gym trip to an enormous junk food binge in a heart beat.

Does anyone else do this to themselves?  Get started down a bad path and then just blindly follow it to its inevitable conclusion, leaving a trail of discarded crisp packets along the way?

Luckily I was able to turn it around.  Instead I started thinking that I would go to the gym, just go to the gym and if you really hate it, if you're really as tired as you think you are, you can leave after 10 minutes.  And of course, I went there and did 30 minutes on the crosstrainer, burning 330 kcal.

The bad news is that there was no subsequent positive domino effect - I succumbed and had a Twix mid afternoon. Meh, you can't win 'em all and I still ended up within my calorie target for the day, partially thanks to not getting home till about 9.30 last night and having only yoghurt for dinner (spent two hours chatting to my dog guy while we scanned the horizon for a dog that had decided that 3 walks wasn't quite enough for him in one day and he wanted to keep running and running and running.... good news is that he did show up eventually and the even better news is that it wasn't my dog that had done the runner. What a good boy I have).

Daily summary (yesterday):
Calories eaten: 1,535
Calories burned: 595
Calorie deficit: 1,160

Today has been a bit better, although am already feeling a bit of diet fatigue. Which is stupid, because I've only just started!  It's the fact that I'm constantly thinking about it all day long.  What shall I eat today? Shall I go to the gym? I really fancy a snack. DoIhavetimetowalkbacktoWaterlooafterwork? ShallIgoforaswimthisevening? HowmanycaloriesdidIeattoday?!?!?! It literally becomes a stream of consciousness constantly running through my head.  I think I'd get bored of that after four days even if it were about Ryan Reynolds in those Hugo Boss ads.

Anyway, the net result of the day was this:

Daily summary (today):
Calories eaten: 1,670
Calories burned: 353 (walking and then a swim in the evening)
Calorie deficit: 783

So a little bit behind where I want to be in terms of calorie deficit for the day, but what the heck, it's Friday.

Quote of the day
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Mark Twain

1 comment:

  1. The problem with diets is that they can dominate your thoughts. It is not easy but try to think of other things rather than what you can and can't eat. Never beat yourself up about the occasional treat (as long as they remain occasional). We had cake in the office yesterday and I had one because I knew I was cycling in the evening so it would soon be burnt off. If you ever need a good fairy to encourage you to go to the gym then text me! I will give you the proverbial kick up the a* that you need. Promise!

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