Blah 😛 lol, I’m really not in the mood. I had a roller coaster of highs and lows this weekend that I’m still recovering from. *sigh*
Fortunately I don’t “eat by feelings” anymore, or I would have taken a pizza and a pint to bed with me last night.;)
I turned things around last year with two simple shifts…
One: FEEL the void, instead of FILL the void. And feel it I did. Second: I found other things to ENJOY in life other than food, which are actually a lot more fun & fulfilling.
Plus other ways to “cure boredom” like getting out for a walk or a hike, going to concerts, singing & dancing (like nobody’s watching! mostly when I’m sure they aren’t, lol), or simple strength building exercises at home.
Unfortunately I haven’t been doing those things very much at all lately, and I’ve been working a lot more than usual too. Work has been great though, providing some nice “highs” at least. I’m on a good creative streak, which feels awesome.
I did hike once last week and once this week, just not with my usual enthusiasm. I feel like I’ve lost my adventurous SPARK! this summer, and my fitness motivation is just kinda tanked too.
I know what to do. I need to just get up and dance, whether I feel like it or not. I need to do 20 Tricep Dips while the coffee is brewing every morning. I need to hike it out until I FIND my FUN side again. I say that because I know it works.
Feel like it or not to start with, you always feel like a million bucks once you DO it – am I right? 😉 The only way to get in the habit… is to GET in the habit.
Anyway, I’ll share my low carb food diaries with you for the last two days, along with my MyFitnessPal logs so you can see how I tracked them. And I’ll share a couple of pictures with you from yesterday’s hike…
Here’s a preview of what to expect today:
Saturday’s Low Carb Meals
My Saturday was a weird day, because I was totally off schedule. I went to bed early Friday and woke up at 11pm, so this day ran through just after 5pm Saturday when I slept until 11pm again. 🙄
My delicious “midnight snack” was Lily’s Sugar Free Chocolate with a TBSP of peanut butter and a serving (30 grams) of raw pecan halves:
Around daybreak I had my favorite LCHF breakfast of pecans, strawberries & Daisy Brand cottage cheese – which I stir all together and call “cereal.” 🙂
For lunch I finished off some chicken strips that were in the freezer. There was 4 ounces left in the bag, so I fried them in butter and just called it lunch. 😉
My dinner: a LCHF cookie sandwich with Ginger Turmeric Fatsnax Cookies and kosher cream cheese. 🙂 Plus 1/2 cup of pecan halves (60 grams).
My macros were great, but I went over my usual “20 net carbs per day” since it was a weird schedule and a long day – and four full meals instead of just three…
Here’s my MyFitnessPal Food Diary for Saturday:
You can see that I had 6 large mugs of coffee Saturday too, each with a TBSP of Coffee-Mate Sugar Free Hazelnut Powdered Creamer.
Sunday’s Low Carb Meals
It was close to lunchtime before I ate on Sunday, just because I was busy that morning. I had 3 sausage patties and 3 fried eggs from McDonald’s before I headed out on my hike:
I packed up plenty of low carb foods for the hike, first because I was packing for two – but also in case we made a longer day of it since the sun doesn’t go down until after 8pm this time of year:
I just ate once, and only snacked on a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but it came to almost 800 calories as you can see in my MFP diary below.
It’s smart to pack compact, calorie-dense foods when you’re hiking or camping. 😉
Here’s my MyFitnessPal Food Diary for Sunday:
Net Carbs: 13
Total Carbs: 48
Calories: 1566
Protein: 80 grams
81% Fat / 16% Protein
Exercise: Hiking Denny Cove
Fitbit Steps: 11,658
Water: 80 ounces
The hike was only maybe four miles tops, but it was a technical trail with plenty of rocks to navigate and a bit of climbing, so it was a great workout for the day.
There’s a smaller waterfall on the way to Denny Falls that I decided to climb, which was a lot of fun. 🙂 It was extremely slick with sketchy footing and rushing water, so it required full body “navigation.” I thought the challenge would do me good, and it did. There for a moment I felt my spark again.;)
The rest of the hike was just sweat and trails and deep thinking.
I found myself sitting on the rock facing Denny Falls trying to remember why it is that I love waterfalls so much.
I watched the water pour over the top in what seemed like a constant repeating pattern, reminding myself that it was changing by the micro-second: that every single drop was new, falling for the first and last time. I tried to find the magic and the beauty in it, but just couldn’t.
I have mixed feelings about the photos above. I’m proud of myself for getting more active. I’m disgusted that I’ve let my arms and waist get flabby again. I look and FEEL great for 44 years old. I could have been so much farther along by now.
Your self-image is a weird thing because feelings are fickle. You can be really proud of yourself and really disgusted with yourself all in the same hour. 😛
You can’t get lost in your negative thoughts though. I always say to myself, “If you’re not happy with it, DO something about it!” -and that goes for anything in your life.
I’m ready to DO something. Like I said earlier… I’m going to FORCE it until I start FEELING it, knowing that ACTION is exactly what it’ll take for my motivation to return. 😉
How are things going with you?
Sorry for the “summer blues” post, but I feel like there may be someone out there that’s feeling it too. Or struggling with the highs and lows of life and maybe missing their JOY -too.
Talking about it helps. Knowing you’re not alone, and there are others (like me) going through it too – that helps too.
But truly… taking action is the thing that will help most.
I aim to get my JOY back, find my motivation at the end of 80 ab reps, sweat out the negativity, and fall in love with nature all over again! 🙂 Let’s do this, shall we?
Best,
Lynn Terry,
aka @LowCarbTraveler




Discount Code: LOWCARBTRAVELER

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