Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Operation Keebler

I need to preface this post. Before you say "Oh, cry me a river" or anything like that, hear me out. And if that doesn't work, well, I apologize for the general obnoxiousness that follows.

When I am on a schedule, my nutrition generally clicks along nicely. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, snack, dinner, snack. There are some meltdowns here and there, like a big chicken cheesesteak, fries, and a beer for dinner, but these are generally few and far between because they wreak havoc on my training the next day. Lately, though, there has been no schedule, because I have not yet started working. I wake up whenever I please, which is generally around 10:00, putter around for a bit, go do some training, work on projects around the house, and so on. But because there's no schedule right now, my eating has totally gone off track in a big, major, catastrophic way.

Here's my issue: I'm losing weight, and have lost about 10 pounds since graduation in May. Big deal, right? But I don't have much room for error - at graduation, I was 118 on a 5'6" frame, which means that a few days ago I was 108. This is as bad as if I had gained 10 pounds, but instead of carrying around extra weight, I feel like I am losing strength, especially on the bike. I feel like the endurance to push the big gears isn't there like it should be. My long ride this past weekend wiped me out far more than it should have for the speeds I went. My clothes are falling off, and I refuse to buy anything new because I shouldn't be this light. This has to stop, and NOW.

Bring on Operation Keebler.

I can 100% attest to the fact that if you stop snacking and keep up your workouts, you will lose weight. Doing so in the weeks before your new A race, though, is a bad, bad idea. So I am making a giant effort to make sure I get those snacks and extra calories in. I'm taking all the diet tips and turning them on their heads - drink only water? I'm drinking as much juice as I can. No mid-morning snacks? I'll have two giant handfuls of trail mix, thanks. No eating before bed? It's Ben & Jerry's for me.

And it seems to be working. I'm up a couple pounds over the last few days. Hopefully in the next few days I can rebuild some of my calorie stores and get my act together. Because this is ridiculous.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I hate you and your 108 pound self. I also hate you at 118 lbs, which happens to be my goal weight.

I'm just kidding of course. In fact, I have a similar problem... I'm just SO BEAUTIFUL that I don't know quite how to handle it.

:)

Wow, I'm really giving you a lot of crap! I hope you forgive me. I'm just jealous. :) And in all seriousness, although I can't say that I empathize with your problem, I do sympathize. Keep eating that trail mix! (mmm, trail mix)

Joy | Love | Chaos said...

Sounds like you may be losing some muscle! Clearly you need some more calories, but maybe also some more *protein* calories, to help build back that base? Peanut butter sandwiches are a great snack with lots of protein and now there are tons of tasty chips out there to "snack" on, but also have 8 or 9 grams of protein per serving.

Not that I have anything against Ben and Jerry, though!