The Turtoise & The Hare...A Marathon Not A Sprint, etc, etc

I push myself, sometimes I think too hard, other times I think not hard enough. One thing I've done in the past is set standards and expectations that I can't live up to. Then I give up. I need to make sure I'm in this for the long run and do things in a way that allows me to maintain them for the long run.

I got some advice yesterday that I'm going to follow, sort of. I have been doing 45 minutes of cardio followed by weight training, core work and stretching 5 days a week. The advice was to cut down to four days a week and to cut down to 30 minutes of cardio. I can't do both, it just seems like too much slack. But I am comfortable with doing one or the other. So this week I'm going to keep up doing 45 minutes of cardio but I'm only going to go four times. We'll see what I decide for next week.

I noticed that as my weight goal has seemed more of a reality I've gotten more focused on losing weight. I think more about my weekly weigh-in and how much I'm going to lose than I used to. I want to get back to my previous way of thinking. I eat healthy and exercise and I lose weight. Exactly how much I lose is not as important as my leading a healthy lifestyle. Eventually I will lose all the weight. This push to lose is not the way I want to think about my new lifestyle, that's part of the diet mentality that I am trying to avoid.

One of the kinks though, is I know I can't really trust myself. I wonder, Am I slacking off because I'm pushing myself too hard and need to avoid burnout? or Am I slacking off because I'm starting to fall off the wagon and don't know it. This paranoia and neurotic thinking drives me nuts!

Anyway, yesterday was great. I had my standard healthy breakfast. I'm one of those people that can eat the same thing for breakfast for months on end. I went to lunch with a co-worker to an Indian buffet. In the past this would have been an opportunity to stuff my face. Today I ate what I believe was a normal amount of food. I didn't feel stuffed afterward and got hungry for my snack of sugar snap peas around 3pm. I was hungry for dinner right on time too. I see hunger pangs of a sign that the amount of food I'm eating is just right.