The holidays are so hard. I’ve been feeling out of control with my eating for a little while now and the holidays totally derailed me.
When you exercise as much as a I do, it’s really easy to ‘forgive’ little treats throughout the day. After hitting my goal weight, (and then my fight weight) I did really well for a long time. I stayed balanced with my fitness and calorie intake. I still stayed away from high sugar foods and kept my system pretty clean. However, when October hit, I started to struggle. In mid-October I ran the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. Leading up to the race, I had been running and boxing so much that I could almost eat whatever I wanted. So I started to. I still avoided multiple high calorie/high sodium meals in the same day. I still would have one or two pieces of pizza and not seven. I still followed all my ‘rules’ but didn’t at the same time. I found myself excusing little snacks throughout the day. Sure I can have a few pieces of candy from the dish. Sure I’d like to try that snack you’re offering. Sure I want that birthday cupcake. I deserve it right?
Recently, I haven’t been running at all, except at the gym. There are no races coming up and I can’t risk the injury of running in bad weather. I’m totally focused on boxing right now. But when I stopped running, my weight started to creep up little by little. I’ve never eaten my exercise calories back. I don’t consider exercise as ‘negative’ to my calorie bank. But, I would excuse a treat because I exercised that day. A treat would be one cookie, a small scoop of ice cream, or fruit juice. But then it turned into candy. And then a brownie. And then several little bites all day. As the holidays go closer, I didn’t do any better. While my weight stayed consistent-ish, I could feel my system getting mucky. I like this feeling because it reminds me how clean my body likes to eat. But then the feeling goes away because it’s your new norm.
Now here it is two months later and I’m 4 pounds heavier. I know to a lot of people 4 pounds is a drop in the bucket. I too would have laughed at that sentence a year or two ago. However, I’m trying to keep my weight as consistent as possible for boxing. I need to get back on track. I need to hold myself more accountable and not give a list of reasons why it’s ok. Here’s my list of excuses over the last two months:
- It’s Halloween
- It’s Thanksgiving
- It’s Christmas
- It’s My Birthday
- It’s New Years
- I exercised today
But seriously, I’m just being lazy. I haven’t held myself to the same standards as I have been and I can feel a huge difference. My insides feel gross. My energy has been lower and I crave food all the time. My focus isn’t as strong and my weight has gone up.
Check back throughout the week to see what I’m going to do about it!
