Maintaining

Here's the problem with maintaining weight instead of trying to lose weight--my inclination is either to cut back on exercise or increase calories with junk. While losing weight I was keeping my calorie intake between 1200 and 1400 calories per day. For maintenance, I can manage 1700 to 1800. But an extra 400 or 500 calories a day makes potato chips and candy really tempting! Especially when I'm PMSing. Alternately, I could cut back on exercise (and really I have--I need to get back to five days a week instead of three) but of the two, I'd rather increase calories than decrease exercise. Eating more is more fun than NOT exercising, and exercising has more benefits other than just weight loss. I just need to work on increasing calories by eating more healthy stuff, not by taking handfuls of potato chips throughout the evening.

Which is what I did last night. Good, healthy food all day. So-so dinner (the kids were having fish sticks, noodles, and broccoli; I had the noodles and broccoli and a hard boiled egg because I don't like fish sticks and didn't get around to thawing regular fish for me), two handfuls of potato chips, a handful of Skittles, and a swirl pop. See what I mean? The swirl pop was all I intended (no fat, only 67 calories, or maybe 87, but at any rate, acceptably low for a dessert) but my will power is waning.

I went to the gym yesterday. When I'm tired, I always promise myself that I only have to do 20 minutes on the bike that day if I want, and then I *never* stop at just 20 minutes--by the time I get that far, another 10 or 15 minutes seems like nothing, so I keep going. Yesterday I did 25 on the bike and 10 on the elliptical. Today I have a lunch meeting with my boss so I KNOW my calorie intake will be higher during the day.