Day 249 (day 4 / week 36)

I'm tired and can't stop yawning. I worked today, and took the stairs again. Man, my leg muscles were burning, let me tell you!

I also started the Spark Stages over again. I just finished stage 3, and was onto stage 4, but decided to start all over again, just to make sure that I pound it in my head, that this is a lifestyle change and not a diet. I know I am doing fine, but better to be safe than sorry, I guess. The other part is that Stage 4 is the last stage. I still want Sparkpeople to hold my hand, so I started over.

I want to share this info with whoever is willing to read it, because it is so helpful in taking baby steps to a lifestyle change. Basically it says to take baby steps, and to just start tracking your food--write it down. Don't obsess so much as to what you are eating, it's more about getting into the habit of writing it down. Eating within calorie limits come at a different stage, I personally feel this is good, because trying to change too much at one time, for me, usually ends with failure. Good solid information:

Can you count? Good. Because if you know that 300 calories are more than 250, and that 4 grams of fat are less than 6, you'll do just fine with the SparkDiet. You may have guessed by now that tracking calories and other nutritional info is a large part of the SparkDiet. Why? Because weight loss in any form comes down to simply burning more calories than you take in. Even fad diets wouldn't have some short-term success if this weren't true. Do you know how many calories you had for lunch? For dinner last night? The SparkPeople menu planner and nutrition tracker tool is an easy way to find out if you're reaching the calorie goals that will open up the doors to weight loss. If you're not used to keeping track of your calories or food, now is the right time to practice. You could guess or estimate. But dieting-by-guessing is like buying a car over the phone -- you never know if you're making decisions on good information. By tracking at least during Stage 1 and Stage 2, you'll have more ammo for choices down the road. This is especially important in the age of exploding portion sizes. (Did you know that the average fast food hamburger grew 23% from 1977 to 1997?) It's so easy to fool ourselves, and tracking doesn't lie. Begin practicing with the food tracker right now, starting with today's menu. Start to build the habit of tracking your food after every meal or at the end of every day. Look up some of your favorites and see how they stack up. You can also input your own foods and save them for easy access later on. Don't worry about meeting your actual calorie goals every day yet. Save that for Stage 2. Think of this as practice, as a learning opportunity. Education is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle, and having a good understanding of what you're putting in your body is one of the smartest things you can do.

Take care! See you tomorrow. I have stuff to complain about, but sometimes I think complaining about somethings (or people *ahem* homeowners) just aren't worth the extra energy.

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.