Some overdue changes

There comes to a point in every weight loss journey where you lose a comfortable amount of weight and then the going gets tough. I have completely come unstuck, I'm back to bad habits and I feel awful. I haven't been for a run since weeks before my wedding and I really feel sluggish and unfit and I hate it! 

I have become really dependent on sugar to make me feel good since I don't have a lot of exercise going on, which worries me. The way I've been eating recently makes me wonder if I have a food addiction.

Anyways. I have decided that for now, I lack the ability to stop at "just one". Be it just one drink, just one lolly or just one sprite zero. My solution to that is to cut it from my life and eat a bit cleaner for the next few weeks. I've also done some thinking about the amount of food I'm using to fuel my body and I think I may need to be a bit more realistic.

Here's some facts:
- I no longer have a wedding deadline looming which means I can take things a bit slower
- I walk to work most days, which burns around 150 calories. I don't count it.
- I aim to eat 1350 calories most days. Sometimes I get quite hungry but fight it.
- Prior to the wedding I was running 20km per week, walking to work, playing netball once a week, playing tennis twice a week and trying to hit the gym a few times as well. All on 1350 calories per day.
- My net calories some days would often be 500. That's 1350 eaten, and 850 burned through exercise alone, without taking into account the calories my body needs just to function!!!

Not eating enough makes your body ask for more. Craving more food can lead to binge eating and making poor choices. 

Eating a more reasonable number of calories = better satisfaction = no cravings and binge eating. Reasonable assumption?

So, as an experiment I have decided to up my calories to 1600 per day. I was initially going to try 1800 but I got a bit scared! The compromise on upping my calories so far is to get a lot more protein into my body and to make sure I am doing some high intensity exercise 6 times per week!

This week's plan:

So, my BMR is: 1572 which I multiply by 1.2 (sedentary) to give my daily calorie needs of 1900cals/day. I subtract 300cals per day to get my my goal of 1,600 calories which gives a weekly deficit of 2,100 calories and I add my weekly burn of 3,000 calories to that which is a total deficit of 5,100 calories which equals a weight loss of 1.4 pounds. 

Whew, got all that???

So, starting point. Will weigh myself tomorrow but here is the lowdown right now:

I'm tired, I have a constant headache, my mouth tastes and feels horrible, I'm dehydrated and my skin feels greasy. My muscles are killing me from netball yesterday and I just feel really out of shape and I'm super irritable.

After 21 days on this plan I hope to:

- Have lost 3kg, feel bright and alert, not be craving unhealthy food, have my skin back to normal and not feel bloated and lethargic. I'd like my fitness levels to be on their way up to a more comfortable level and I'd like not to be so cranky all the time. 

I'm keen to give this a decent shot, so I might post up my daily eats since I have fixed the camera on my phone (yay!).