Gaming the system.

So after much deliberation (all right, a little deliberation), I’ve decided to go back to daily weigh-ins. The last month has not been particularly kind to me, weight-loss-wise. I think that I just have a personality that wants to game the system. In other words, I like to take the easy way out. When I only weigh in on Wednesdays, I have a habit of overdoing things on, say, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and occasionally Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays, because I have time to “make it up.”  Then, of course, I spend Monday and Tuesday scrambling to lose the weight I gained in the last few days. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t.

But even if I was losing weight every week, it would still be a bad policy. It’s not a terrible thing that I’ve started relaxing a little bit about my diet; eating 1800 calories a day instead of 1500 a day is going to make things easier to maintain. But when that’s combined with several 3000-3500 calorie days, it’s no good. And I need that accountability to help me eat right, and keep going to the gym even when I don’t want to, and to push my workouts from mediocre to good. I hopped on the elliptical for an hour yesterday, and I’ve done the elliptical many times in the last 10 months. But yesterday, I pushed it to a new level. By the end, I had sweaty spots within the sweaty spots on my shirt. It felt great to kick my ass again.

I’m also getting excited about the weather turning and the clocks changing. That first week is always rough, because waking up before dawn is depressing and awful. But being able to run outside after work again is a huge relief. It’s been great having a gym membership but having nothing to see but Fox News is not great motivation to hit the gym. Even if I’m running on the same path I’ve run on a hundred times before, just being outside is enjoyable.

Speaking of running outside, I’m excited for the Urban Adventure Run I’m going on tonight. Basically, you start at a running store, and you’re given a map with a bunch of local businesses that are handing out raffle tickets, from ¼ mile to 3 miles away, then you get an hour to hit as many of them as possible and get back for the raffle, where there’s food and beer. Seriously, what more motivation do you need to get out and run?

Finally, I’m 17 days away from my second half-marathon, and the first that I’m going to attempt to run. I’m not supremely confident, if only because a combination of laziness and a nasty flu has set back my training. Still, I’m going to go 13.1 miles, whether I have to run it or walk it. I probably won’t make the pace I was hoping for when I first signed up, but I’ll have gone 13.1 miles further than I did on the last March 24^th, and that’s a win.