Routine Adjustment

We got home from Germany a few days ago and despite a pleasant lack of jet lag, things are feeling a bit tricky with my routines. We managed to get to the gym the morning after we arrived, and food is actually a lot easier here for me, so it’s been good so far. And when I had my psychiatrist’s appointment yesterday and got weighed in, I was pleasantly surprised to see the number: 171.2. That’s 4.8 pounds down from my pre-trip weight of 176. My expectation had been that I might stay the same weight or even gain a bit due to the reverse dieting (I’m up to eating 2,000 calories a day now), but hopefully it’s actually working and my metabolism is speeding up.

Another major factor in my weight loss has to be the increase in exercise since going to Germany. I had just recently switched my weight-lifting days to full body workouts instead of splits and I continued that way for the whole time we were there. In addition to adding more weights, I was walking a lot more there than at home. I walked 10 minutes each way to and from the gym every day, plus I upped my running time to 20 minutes on Saturdays when I would run in the park. So I guess it’s really no wonder that I lost weight with all this extra exercise, but I was still prepared for disappointment at my weigh-in and was happy with the result.

The problem is, now I have to figure out what I’m doing all over again. I’m going to continue reverse dieting, increasing my calories every 2 weeks by 50 calories a day. I have no reason to believe that it’s a total disaster, so I guess I’ll just assume it’s working and carry on. And having 2,000 calories a day to work with certainly made our travel days easier. The only problem I ran into was having trouble eating enough the first 2 days we got back. But I’m trying to plan my meals better so I don’t get too full at night and I think I’m back on track.

In terms of exercise, however, I feel I’m in a bit of a pickle. Ideally I could maintain my increased exercise here at home, but I’m not sure I’m up to it. First of all, it’s freezing here- much colder than Germany- and walking outside is wholly unappealing. It’s also not very pedestrian-friendly where we live in terms of having a destination, so I’m pretty sure outdoor walks are off the table. But those extra 20 minutes of walking 6 days a week really added up, and I don’t want to stall my weight loss by not continuing.

The treadmill is apparently my best option, but it’s so absolutely boring that I find it hard to stomach an extra 20 minutes a day of walking on it. So for now I’ve settled on doing an extra 10 minutes of uphill walking on the treadmill on cardio days, and running for 20 minutes straight instead of doing my run/walk intervals. But now I feel like I need to add walking on my weight-lifting days, and that might be the tipping point where I just want to forget exercising altogether. It was just so easy in Germany, taking an easy walk with the gym as my destination, listening to an audio book on the way. But here it just doesn’t seem feasible, even cutting the time in half from 20 minutes to 10.

I feel like I finally got into a good routine in Germany, and was able to get out of the house relatively easily every day. And now I have to change everything up again, and don’t know what to expect of myself. I want to lose more weight, so that’s some motivation, but I also have to deal with the reality that I struggle to exercise at all, never mind for 30-40 minutes a day. Today, facing a 20-minute jog and a 10-minute walk on the treadmill, I just wanted to go back to bed. I guess I feel like that most days when faced with the prospect of exercising, but this latest development definitely makes it harder.

I might have to just go back to the status quo, let go of this extra walking business, and focus on my shorter, more manageable workouts. Maybe if I just keep at it, the reverse dieting will be the key to weight loss. If I can get my maintenance calories up high enough, I could start dieting again, reducing my calories temporarily, and with my increased metabolism, lose more weight. Whatever happens with the exercise, the most important thing is to just keep going. I can never go back to doing no exercise at all. So even if it’s not exactly what I was hoping for, just continuing is the key.